Baby Steps
by percyjacksonfan135
Summary: Sequel to Growing Pains. If you haven't, please read that first. AU. It's a new chapter in 9-year-old Harry's life. Vernon's dead, but Harry's got a whole new set of problems. When a new baby comes in to the picture, Zack has his hands full with two kids in diapers. Will Zack be up to it, or will he crash and burn before it's too late? Disabled; Harry, mpreg, OC; Father.
1. Preparations and Explanations

Baby Steps:

Authors note: hello everyone; it has been a little while, but I did promise you a sequel. And, here it is. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters; they belong to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.

Chapter 1:

Saying that everyone was shocked to the core was an understatement. Percy's mouth dropped open like a fish, but he managed to say, "so, are you technically my uncle then?"

Zack laughed softly and answered, "well, no, not technically. Lily, your aunt, she and I never really got married. We were planning to, but she died before it could happen..." And then Zack added gently, "but that doesn't mean anything. Just because I am your cousin's father, doesn't mean a thing. Both of you kids mean a lot to me as well; we will always be friends, no matter what."

After a while, Poseidon asked softly, "so, what does this mean for you and Harry as of right now? Will you file for total custody and have him move in with you and your friends, or what was your plan for him?"

The young college student looked thoughtful for a while before he said, "well, as I am still in school, I don't think that I can do that anytime soon. I was thinking that maybe for a while, that your family and I could have some sort of agreement where Harry stays with me and Alex let's say, every other weekend or so, and maybe every Wednesday?"

Petunias smiled and answered, "I think that would be okay, but let's discuss this after all of the funeral arrangements and everything is done. In the meantime, could you and Alex baby-sit for us while we go to the funeral? I'm afraid that if Harry comes with us, it may further damage him."

Zack smiled down at the little boy in his arms and said, "of course we can."

Meanwhile, the nine-year-old was slowly waking up in Zack's arms, and when he saw the young man smiling at him, he reached up and gently tugged on Zack's dark hair. When Zack looked down, he realized that the child was mumbling something. "What's up, kiddo?" Zack asked softly. "Can you speak up?"

"Help?" Harry asked. And then tears came into his eyes. "Need help; wet!"

A look of understanding came into Zack's eyes as he looked at his son, who looked miserable and uncomfortable. "Oh, okay. Come on; let's see what we can do about that."

Zack stood up with Harry in his arms, and was about to go upstairs with him when Tyson said shyly, "I can do it if you need a break."

The young college student smiled and answered, "thanks, but I can do it. It's something I should get used to; right?" And then he laughed gently as Harry cuddled into his arms; nuzzling his chest like a little puppy.

Meanwhile, Hades had a lot of paperwork to do concerning Vernon Dursley. Although he had never met the man personally, Hades knew his type. Just the other day, he had seen a man that reminded him strongly of Vernon; with his mannerisms and everything. He did not catch the man's name, but it sounded like he had said that his name was Gabe or something like that. Anyway, Hades was in the middle of all of his paperwork; trying not to snarl as he stared at it. "It serves him right," he grumbled. "He was a vile man, and I will not forgive him for what he had done to my nephew!"

As that was going on, Zack was upstairs with the nine-year-old, trying and failing to change him. For some reason, Harry would not stay still, and it was getting a little frustrating. Zack really didn't know if it was because Harry truly thought someone was going to hurt him or if he was just playing a game. Either way, it took the college student a good 20 minutes to get the child cleaned up. After a while, Zack finally had to place one hand on the little boy's stomach to make him lie flat, which seemed to work. "Would you calm down?" Zack said with a little bit of a laugh. "You're awfully wiggly today." But then he noticed something very different in the little boy's green eyes. It was something that was rarely seen, but it was there. Harry was laughing a little bit, and he sounded just like a toddler. "Oh, you are such a goofball," Zack said fondly, "come on goofball; let's go see what everyone else is doing."

As soon as Zack and Harry got back downstairs, Alex stood up and said, "well, we probably should be going now, we both have classes right now, but we will come back later." And then he called over his shoulder, "Zack, are you coming?"

"Yeah I am; just one second." Without really thinking about it, Zack kissed the top of Harry's messy locks and said softly, "I'll be back later, little one. Be good, okay? I love you." And then he followed his friend out the front door, and was gone from sight before anyone could blink.


	2. The whows of Hermione Granger

Hello everyone; I was recently asked why Lily Evans Potter was in my character list, and I owe it to all of you to explain. Well, there are going to be a lot of memories about the past, so it will seem like Lily is alive even though she really isn't. If this doesn't make sense to you, I would be more than happy to explain it to you in a private message if that would help. Anyway, disclaimer: anything recognizable is not owned by me. All characters except for my originals belong to their rightful owners and authors.

Chapter 2:

Since Harry had reverted back to his original state of mind before starting therapy, he was no longer going to school at Hogwarts for the time being. Everyone, including Alex and Zack agreed that it was best for him to stay out of school until he could at least get back up to a three-year-old level in cognition and reasoning. This however, did not mean that Alex and Zack had that same freedom. In addition to all of their classes at NYU, the headmaster had met with the young men and asked them to join his staff as teacher assistants as part of their internships. Alex and Zack were very surprised by this offer, but pleased as well, because it meant that they both could get a little extra money, which was great because rent in New York City was ridiculous. And since Zack was getting his degree in counseling anyway, it helped a great deal that Hogwarts was set up for that very purpose.

And speaking of Hogwarts, Harry's first friend, Hermione Granger, was very sad as she hadn't seen Harry in the library in a long time, or for that matter, in school at all. Hermione might have been a book worm, but she knew when friends were genuine versus fake. But she also knew when friends had been lost, or maybe she didn't. She was only about eight years old, so she didn't fully understand the seriousness of Harry's situation or why he was not in school. She genuinely felt that it was her fault, and later on, Hermione went to her favorite place, which was the library, and curled up in a soft chair and cried. She genuinely missed Harry's infectious smile and his friendliness, and she wondered what she had done wrong to drive him away.

Needless to say, Hermione's absence from therapy that day did not go unnoticed. In fact, it was Zack who had been sent to look for her by one of the other teachers. They were clearly worried about her as she had never told anyone where she had gone or anything. But from what Alex had told him about the young girl, Zack knew that she loved to read, but he also knew that she shielded herself and her feelings by doing this. So, naturally, the young teacher's assistant found her in the library as predicted, but what he hadn't expected to see when he had found her were a pair of red and puffy eyes. Clearly, the little girl had been crying all afternoon, and it looked as though her heart had been broken into a thousand pieces. Now that he had found her, Zack did not want to leave the young child all alone with her misery. He was pretty used to dealing with upset children, but it didn't mean it was always easy to watch. Zack sat in silence for a few minutes with Hermione before asking gently, "Hermione, what's wrong, honey? What's got you so upset?"

Hermione tried her best not to cry again, but she only succeeded in crying even harder. After a while, she finally said, "M-my f-fault... Miss Harry... don't know what I did..."

Zack seemed to understand immediately and he gently enveloped the young girl in a hug. "No, no, no," he said gently. "It's nothing you did; don't ever think that! I know you miss him; we all know that. But don't think for one minute that it was your fault. Harry has a lot of problems right now, and the school environment is a little too much for him right now. But you know what? He is really lucky to have a friend like you. I know that you really care about him, and I promise that you will see him when he gets better. Now, you look like you need another hug before you go to your next class." And without really thinking about what he was doing, Zack hugged the little girl one last time before gently ruffling her hair. He himself had escorted her to her next class as he was the teaching assistant for that class anyway. And while he was gone, things were very interesting at his and Alex's apartment, especially with Harry their. Speaking of that, let's take a look at what was going on on Alex's day off from Hogwarts.

Since the adults in the Jackson household had to get back to work, including Mrs. Dursley, and the boys were in school, that left Alex to personally go and pick up the nine-year-old and bring him to his and Zack's apartment for the day. Since Alex did not have any classes or teaching assistant duties that day, he was able to stay with Harry for the entire day. It didn't mean it was easy though, because it meant that Alex had to deal with Harry's babyish behaviors, especially when Robert was around. Although Harry knew Robert quite well now, he would still flinch away from him at times because of the memories of his uncle. This was the main reason why Zack and Alex did not always allow him to take care of the child by himself. It wasn't that they didn't trust him, it was more for Harry's mental well-being and safety. Although they both understood that Robert genuinely felt bad for scaring him, it didn't mean that the child fully understood that just yet.

Anyway, thankfully, Robert had classes all day, so Alex was alone with Harry until Zack came back from work. There was also another reason why Harry had to stay with Alex that day. Not only did the adults have to go to work, but the funeral for Mr. Dursley was taking place that evening, and Petunia felt that it would not be safe for Harry's mental well-being to attend. She felt that it would make his trauma even worse than it already was. She did not want her nephew to end up in a mental hospital over something as simple as paying respects to the dead. Hades, who oversaw everything, completely understood and agreed that his young nephew would not be able to handle seeing his uncle after everything that he had done to him.

So, as the adults were doing that, Alex was in the middle of trying to calm down a very upset and distressed Harry. Apparently, he had been fine earlier that morning, but when Zack had left for Hogwarts without him, it made the little boy very sad. But he wasn't sad because he wasn't going to school; Harry was upset and sad because the person whom he thought of as a parent had left him. He was afraid that Zack would not be coming back, just like his mother, and it frightened him. It frightened Harry enough that he started crying and wouldn't stop. Harry of course did not know that Zack was his biological father just yet, but some instinct told him that when he was upset, sick, or hurt, Zack was one of the few adults whom the little boy completely trusted. And every time that Zack took care of him, Harry felt an overwhelming sense of love and security that he had not felt with anyone else. Sure, he knew on some level that Percy and Tyson and everyone else loved him, and although he felt safe with them, the nine-year-old did not feel the way he did the same way as he did with Zack. He knew somehow that Zack was different. He seemed connected to him somehow; almost like a bond that had been broken, and recently reestablished.

"Harry," Alex said gently, "don't cry anymore. It breaks my heart to see you so sad. Zack will come back soon; I promise. Here, do you want to draw?" Alex asked; offering the small boy a stack of papers and some crayons. But to Alex's surprise, the little boy jumped into his lap and buried his head into Alex's T-shirt. All he wanted to do was be held; just like an infant. So, that's what Alex did. He just sat there; cuddling the small child in his arms and rocking him back and forth. Alex fed him, but Harry barely noticed as his eyes were starting to droop from sleepiness. But it wasn't until late that afternoon that Zack finally got home. Alex had told him about the nine-year-old having a hard time and the reason for it. "Oh, poor baby," Zack said sympathetically. "He probably just missed me." And then he added in an undertone, "I think it is also because of the funeral. Harry, for some reason, is very sensitive to death and what it really means."

Alex was shocked but he asked, "how do you know that?"

Zack smiled and answered, "I took care of him for about a month after Lily had died; this was before I adopted him out. He very much missed his mother; something that I think he still does, but it is a subconscious feeling. And now, because of it, he can somehow sense many things about people, but I never really noticed it before until now. Speaking of him, where is he?"

Alex smiled and answered, "he is asleep right now, but you may want to go in and check on him. He hasn't been feeling too well lately."

Zack snorted lightly. "Yeah, don't I know it? I had to clean up puke more than once on him, and believe me, it wasn't pretty."

Alex laughed and gently shoved his friend toward the guest room where the little boy was sleeping. "Go take care of him already! The kid misses you!"

And as soon as Zack saw Harry, he immediately scooped him up into his arms. The little boy had woken up, but as if it was ingrained in his brain, he stared up at the young man's face and began to play with his hair. Harry did not know why he liked to do that, but he just knew that somehow he found it calming and familiar. Zack laughed softly when he saw what his son was doing. "What is it with you and hair kiddo?" He thought to himself. But very softly and gently, he said, "I am home now, baby; no need for you to be frightened." And just like that, the nine-year-old instantly relaxed into the young man's arms as he continued to play with his dark hair.


	3. Unexpected Memories

Guess what? That's right; you guys get to see another chapter today. As always, let me know if there are any questions or anything that you don't understand. Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my original characters, Alex and Zack.

Chapter 3:

Later that evening, everyone minus the nine-year-old was filing into the church where the funeral service for Vernon Dursley would take place. When Vernon had been alive, he had never gone to church with his family, but Mrs. Dursley always made it a point to go whenever she could. Anyway, almost the whole family was there. Hades and Persephone, Marge Dursley, Petunia, Sally, Poseidon, Percy, Tyson, Nico, Bianca, Zeus, Hera, and finally, Thalia. Although the rest of the family didn't like Vernon very much, they knew that it was equally wrong to disrespect the dead, so they did the very thing they did not really want to do. And surprisingly, the younger children were very well behaved throughout the whole service. Although they were very young, both Nico and Bianca knew how important their father's work was. And since underworld Inc. was a national chain of funeral homes, they somehow knew that their father had done most if not all of the funeral arrangements for people all over the country.

It was not to say that the funeral was easy though. Thalia was a little restless and feeling a little sad. She remembered all too well what had happened to her younger brother Jason, and she couldn't help but feel guilty every time. It was sometimes hard for her not to think about those things, especially since she was the one who had seen her brother with her own eyes. Zeus must've sensed his daughter's behavior, because he reached over and gently squeezed her hand in his. Although he did not say anything, his gesture clearly meant that he understood what she was thinking about and that he missed him as well. No one really knew what it happened to Jason, other than that he had been killed accidentally when he was two years old. Thalia had been six at the time, so she had some memories of what it was like before he had died. People often thought that Jason had been hit by a car, so that was the rumor going around for many months. However, Thalia and Zeus knew better.

Flashback: in a kitchen, two children, a six-year-old Thalia and a two-year-old Jason were playing and coloring together at the kitchen table while their father, Zeus cooked supper. Although he seemed happy, it was clear that he really wasn't. He and his first wife, Thalia and Jason's mother, had been fighting a lot lately. And it wasn't just about everyday things either. Zeus's first wife had a terrible drinking problem, which led her to become violent; not just toward him, but toward the two children that Zeus so desperately loved. He did his best to protect the children from their mother's anger and violent temper, but sometimes he wasn't successful.

Thalia was only six years old, but she was definitely old enough to be frightened, but she did not understand why she was frightened or that her own mother was doing this to her and her brother. Jason on the other hand, got the worst of it. In fact, it happened to be a day where Zeus was gone all day, and wasn't home when Thalia had come home from school. The day she had come home from school and not seeing her father, probably was the scariest thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life. She heard screaming and cursing coming from somewhere upstairs in the house, but she could not find her mother and brother anywhere. Feeling frightened, Thalia went to look for them. And when she went into her bedroom to drop off her stuff, she didn't know that she had accidentally walked into her mother's bedroom by mistake. When she saw what was going on, and the pool of blood surrounding her two-year-old brother became thicker and thicker, she screamed. She had just seen her mom do something terrible. She understood that what she had done was bad, but Thalia was too scared to do anything; too scared to say anything at all. And then she cried without fully understanding that her little brother, her Jason, would never be coming back.

Thalia was jerked out of her thoughts when a gentle hand placed itself on her shoulder. She panicked for a moment; thinking that her mom had come back from the grave, but she soon relaxed again when she realized that the hand belonged to her cousin Percy. "You were kind of zoning out," he whispered to her gently, "are you doing okay? I know this isn't easy for you."

Trying and failing to smile, Thalia shook her head. "I'm just remembering a lot of things right now," she whispered back. She did not need to say anything else to clarify what she meant. Even though Percy was her cousin, the two of them were a lot like siblings. And although Percy never really saw Jason all that much when he was little, he knew that his death had affected Thalia greatly.

Percy looked at his cousin sympathetically. "You're thinking about Jason, aren't you?" He whispered gently. "It really wasn't your fault, you know. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." But Thalia suddenly couldn't speak. She burst into silent tears and buried her head in Percy's shoulder; all the while, listening to the service drone on and on.

In the meantime, Nico had fallen asleep, so Persephone took him out of the church for a while so that he could rest. As she passed Thalia and Percy, Persephone gave her older niece a somewhat comforting smile. She had also known about the incident, and she understood how sad her niece had been after it happened, and she did all she could to make her feel better. Out of most of her relatives, Thalia felt most comfortable with her Aunt Sally and her Aunt Persephone. She felt that out of all of them, they were more a mother to her than Hera was at times. I'm not saying that Hera was a mean person; she was very strict, but she never once went out of her way to hurt her stepdaughter or anything. The two of them clashed, which was to be expected because Hera would never be the same as a real mom. Not that her real mom was any better; she wasn't, but Thalia was just too stubborn not to see that.

Meanwhile, Harry was still with Alex and Zack because the funeral service had lasted longer than anyone had expected. The little one was being spoon-fed his supper by Zack since he firmly told Alex that he wanted to do as much for Harry as he could. His reasoning was that if his son was going to trust him, the best way for him to do that was to let his natural parent take care of him as much as possible. Alex completely understood his roommates reasoning and allowed him to do what he wanted. At the same time, Alex was grateful, because he was extremely worn out from the day's events. So, he welcomed the break with a flourish and immediately began to finish his homework after eating his own food. "Well, I'll be in my room finishing my homework if you need me," Alex told his friend before heading in that direction. And as an afterthought, Alex called over his shoulder, "by the way, where's Robert? I haven't seen him all day today."

"I don't know," Zack answered with a groan, "I just hope that he's not getting himself into trouble again. Gee, you'd think that between our roommate and Harry, you and I were raising two children instead of one."

Alex snorted. "You aren't kidding!" He answered. "Just last night, Robert had woken me up at three in the morning because he happened to be doing his laundry. But it wasn't just his clothes he was washing; I swear that man needs diapers just as much as Harry does." And then Alex full out laughed and added, "I know it's not funny, but you do have to wonder sometimes if Robert doesn't have problems of his own."

Zack gazed solemnly at his friend and answered, "I think I know what you mean. A few times this week, I have heard him yelling in his sleep, and he does not sound very happy at all. In fact, I often wonder if something happened to him when he was younger, because, considering how irresponsible he is at times, I don't think that it's entirely his fault."

"You think we should talk to him about it?" Alex asked his friend.

Zack shook his head sadly and replied, "I think, for now, that we should wait and see if he will tell us anything. If not, then, yes, I think we should talk to him. I hate to say it, but he needs help, and he sure isn't going to get any until he either asks for it, or we force him because we care about him. Now, go finish your homework, worry wart." And with that, Zack gently shooed his friend out of the kitchen.

The nine-year-old was rather restless, so Zack had a little harder time feeding him. In fact, he was feeling rather uncomfortable and he looked like he was in some pain. But what it really was was that Harry was very full and could not eat anymore. A lot of times, because his muscles were weaker than expected, the nine-year-old often got gas and could not get it out. It sounded a little weird, but because of his muscle weakness, sometimes whoever was feeding him had to actually burp him like a baby, which was not very pleasant in the slightest. Being nine years old, Harry was much bigger and heavier than a regular toddler, so many of his family members ended up having to change their clothes afterwards, and tonight was no different.

Harry still wasn't able to always tell someone what was really wrong with him, but he often cried whenever he was physically uncomfortable. So, when the nine-year-old started to cry, and looked up at Zack with wide, puppy dog eyes, Zack immediately realized what was wrong and quickly grabbed a dish towel and draped it over himself. Then he expertly picked up the child in order to help him get rid of the excess gas that was trapped in his stomach. But boy was he ever surprised afterwards. When Zack finished what he was doing, and flipped the little boy right side up again, Harry made a complete mess of himself. Not only did he throw up, but he somehow completely filled his diaper without realizing he had done so.

Zack was so stunned that he couldn't speak for over five minutes. After a while, he got over his surprise and actually laughed. Not that it was funny or anything, but the young man had so much adrenaline running through him at the moment from everything that had happened, and he was just now beginning to release it. "Oh my goodness?" He laughed. "I knew you were going to do that; I just knew it! Come on kiddo, let's get you a bath; you need it!"

In the meantime, Alex had finished his essay on the American Revolution when a sudden flashback came over him. He never thought about his sister very often, but whenever he did, it was usually in the form of a flashback. This particular flashback was about when she was five years old and Zack had just started babysitting for her. Although she knew him, it was hard for her because she somehow understood that he was not a family member that she knew very well.

Flashback: "okay Mom, I'm going now." Alex's voice could be heard throughout the second floor of the house because it carried so well.

"Okay honey," his mom said as she finished up some reports she was doing for her office job. "Don't forget; your dad and I are going out tonight, and I know you won't be home till later yourself, so you need to call your friend and see if he can baby-sit."

"I almost forgot; thanks for reminding me!" And then Alex was gone.

Later on, Sarah, who was five years old, but acted more like she was two, was very upset as both her older brother and her parents were gone. She wasn't alone though. True to his word, Alex had called his friend Zack and asked him to stay with her until either he or his parents came home. "Alex, I have no experience with people like this," Zack had reminded him. "Are you sure you don't want someone else to do this?"

"Zack, no one else is around. Besides, you are my best friend, and I trust you with my life! Will you please do this for me?"

Zack laughed at the ridiculous puppy dog voice that his friend was using and he eventually gave in. "All right, you got me, but Alex, is there anything I need to do or be aware of?"

So Alex explained to his friend that his little sister pretty much functioned like a two or three-year-old most of the time, so eyeballs needed to be on her at all times, especially because she was prone to running away. So, for the next three hours, that was exactly what Zack Callahan did. He had to catch the little girl many times, especially because she had tried to run outside by herself. And although Zack didn't know anything about children with special needs, he found that he was a natural with them and other children in spite of having no experience or education about them. As for Sarah, she was a sweetheart. Once she calmed down a little bit, and got used to being around Zack, there were times when she wanted him to pick her up, and he happily obliged. He never understood why, but Sarah referred to everyone is Mama, but Zack actually thought that that was kind of cute. However, what wasn't cute, and what his friend had failed to mention, was the fact that Sarah still needed diapers full time as that was how her disability affected her. And since he had no idea what to do about it, Zack actually had to look up how to properly change a diaper on the Internet because he had no younger siblings of his own and could not learn from experience.

When Alex had come home and asked how everything was, Zack told him what happened, which made his friend laugh, especially because of the fact that no one he knew actually had to look up how to do what Zack had done.

Alex was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the nine-year-old screaming in pain. And Zack came in and said frantically, "I need to call the Jacksons, and then I need to call the hospital. This poor little guy is very, very sick. I took his temperature, and he has a fever of 102°. I'm really, really scared!"

"Zack, I know you're scared, but stay calm. I don't think he needs to go to the hospital. Just call the Jacksons and see what you should do. Ask them what they do for a 102° fever," Alex told his friend calmly. "You really love him; don't you? Just follow your heart." And for the rest of the night, both young men were up periodically tending to the nine-year-old, and twice, they had to change him as he was taking in fluids more frequently because of his fever. The fever had lasted throughout the night, but by the next morning, it had completely broken; leaving the little one extremely tired and weak. "Oh kiddo, I sure wish that things weren't so hard for you," Zack mumbled to himself as he took care of the nine-year-old with as much tender loving care as he had the second time he had stayed over with them. "I just love you so much; and I wish you could get better soon."

But then something very surprising happened while Zack was once again feeding the young child. Harry looked up into Zack's Brown eyes and said the very word that he had learned so long ago, but had forgotten just as quickly. But now that Zack had found him again, Harry was soon able to remember that one simple word. "Dada?" He asked. "Dada..."

Zack was confused at first, but when he finally realized what the nine-year-old was saying over and over again, his brown eyes immediately filled with happy tears as he suddenly grabbed his son in his arms and covered the top of his head with kisses. Zack was overwhelmed with emotion at this simple word, because to him, it meant so much. It meant that although Harry would most definitely have a permanent disability, he was slowly starting to recognize Zack for who he really was. With tears still streaming down his cheeks, Zack whispered over and over again, "I am. I love you so, so much!"


	4. Lily Meets Sarah

It took me a while, but here is the next installment of baby steps. Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognizable. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson belong to their respective authors.

Chapter 4:

It had been a few days after the funeral for Vernon Dursley, and everyone was trying to get back to their normal lives. Although Harry was feeling much calmer, there were still times when he would have flashbacks, which were terrible! Clarisse would come over every once in a while to hang out with Percy and also to say hi to the nine-year-old. Percy had told her about the whole situation beforehand, so Clarisse wasn't surprised in the slightest when the nine-year-old crawled over to her like a baby and curled up in her lap. Well, she was a little surprised, but she didn't really blame him. The poor kid had been through a lot since the last time she had seen him.

"Did your dad get the teaching position he wanted?" Percy asked his friend as she was getting a soda out of the fridge.

Clarisse looked confused for a moment, but then her eyes widened in understanding as she realized what her friend was asking about. "Oh, actually yes he did," she answered. "He works at NYU as a college history professor; mainly US history, such as world wars one and two. I'm just glad that he no longer has to travel so much. He may be tough, but he does care in his own way."

Percy snorted; remembering when Clarisse's father, Ares had scared him half to death when he had come home with her earlier in the school year. "A little protective though isn't he?" And then Percy laughed a little; showing his friend that he was remembering what her dad had done earlier that school year.

Clarisse nodded her head, but then she also began to laugh as she had been there the day her dad had scared her friend practically senseless. "Yeah, I guess a little," she agreed. "Let's make a pizza; I'm starving!"

Meanwhile, the nine-year-old was lying on his stomach in the middle of the living room drawing pictures as usual. Much like a young child, Harry was babbling nonsense and making goofy noises. Because of the past events, Harry was no longer able to speak, but with the help of his cousins, aunts, uncles, his respite provider, and most importantly, his biological father, Harry was well on the road to some form of recovery. Although everyone knew that he most likely would have some form of a permanent disability, it didn't mean that he wasn't able to learn. He just needed a little extra help when it came to many things.

As it so happened, the adults were still at work and Tyson was at a friend's house, so Percy needed to stay home with his cousin. That was actually why Clarisse was over at the house to begin with. They were actually doing a project together, and since Percy's house had more space, they both decided to stay over there and work on their project.

It was a project for their science class, and since it was a very big part of their grade, neither Percy nor Clarisse wanted to fail. As much as the two of them hated the class, they could not drop it as it was required for graduation in their senior year. But they were both very happy as well because once the Christmas holidays started; the school year would be more than half over.

Elsewhere in the city, a partial custody hearing was being held in the New York City courthouse. Although Zack really did not want to do this, he knew that he wanted to stay in his son's life as much as he could. Being only a grad student, Zack was still not able to care for his son full-time, so he was only filing for partial custody, now that he had found him all those months ago.

The hearing went very well considering how difficult he thought it was going to be. Thankfully it was over Mrs. Dursley's lunch break, and luckily it didn't take as long as he had originally thought. It was only over a course of three days, which wasn't bad at all. As I said before, Zack didn't want to do this, but Mrs. Dursley urged him to do so because she knew that it was the right thing to do. Although she was being represented by a prosecutor, Mrs. Dursley wanted to do the right thing concerning her nephew and his biological parent. She knew that Zack utterly and truly loved Harry, and she was not going to take that away from him.

The hearing itself was very difficult as there were a lot of tough questions from both sides, but that didn't matter as the young man and Mrs. Dursley were in agreement with each other. Before the hearing even happened, Zack came to the Jackson household to talk with Petunia about partial custody arrangement for Harry. They had both agreed that it was best for him to do the arrangement that he himself had suggested before the funeral. Since the little boy was sort of doing that to begin with, it seemed silly not to stop, so that was how the hearing even got started in the first place.

So, after it was all over, Zack felt a whole lot better about everything. He was happy that no one could hurt his son the way Vernon had done ever again, and he now knew that Harry recognized him for who he really was and wasn't afraid. In fact, the little boy seemed like a completely different person when ever Zack or Alex was with him. To him, both Alex and Zack seemed like long lost friends or family members that the little boy had never even remembered having to begin with. But that didn't matter anymore. Harry would have the best of both worlds because, even though he would be going back and forth between the two houses, he knew that he was loved no matter where he would be. And since it was Wednesday night, the nine-year-old was staying with Zack and Alex as part of the agreement.

In the meantime, after the nine-year-old had been fed and cleaned up, he did nothing but sit in his father's lap; soaking in the warmth of his skin, and relaxing as the steady, thump, thump, thump of Zack's heartbeat beneath the child's head. It was oddly comforting to feel and hear the older man's heartbeat for the nine-year-old because it meant, to him, anyway, that someone was there for him, and would always be there, no matter what.

Anyway, as he was sitting there, the nine-year-old was becoming drowsy. Zack had actually finished his homework a long time ago, which was why he was just sitting in the living room with the little one in his lap; attempting to relax as well. The TV was on, but no one was really watching it. Although Harry was almost asleep, Zack made no move to put him to bed just yet. He also was enjoying and relishing in the peaceful moment. It felt like that all he wanted to do right now was to hold his son and remember all the good times he had when Lily was alive. In fact, there was one memory in particular that stuck out for Zack.

It was shortly after Lily had told him that she was pregnant. Surprisingly, he took it well, but that wasn't the surprising thing. The surprising thing was that after about a year of babysitting for Alex's little sister Sarah, he thought he would surprise lily by allowing her to come with him to Alex's house. Lily agreed to go. She had met Alex only once, but she thought he was a pretty nice guy, especially when it came to other people. This time, Zack was not going over there to babysit, but to visit. He thought that Sarah would really like Lily in spite of not knowing her at all. When the two of them got there, Alex watched his little sister very carefully to make sure that she would not run away as Lily was a stranger to her. But, surprisingly, she actually ran over to Lily and cried, "Mama!"

Lily looked slightly confused at first, but then when she heard the young men laughing, she quickly joined in. They were laughing because technically, Sarah was absolutely right. Although Lily was not her mother, she somehow recognized that she was going to be a mother, so she said the very word that she always said when she tried to distinguish adults from children. But even that was a little mixed up as Sarah, for some reason, could not distinguish between men and women. But then she also said another word while looking at Lily. "Baby?" She questioned. "Baby?"

Everyone was too shocked to speak, but eventually Alex understood and shot his friend a confused look. When Zack nodded his head he said quietly, "yes, it's true. We even did a paternity test and everything." And then turning to the little girl, Zack crouched down in front of her and asked gently, "would you like to feel it?" It must've been the second trimester already because the baby was already moving and kicking up a storm. By this time, Lily had also crouched down in front of Sarah so that she was eye level with her.

"Don't be afraid, little one," she said gently; "it won't hurt you." And then, with Zack gently guiding her hand, Sarah giggled a little as she felt the soft fluttering of the baby moving around. She kept saying the word baby over and over again, which made everyone smile. After a while, Lily whispered to Zack, "I know you don't have much experience with people with special needs, but let me tell you something. For as long as I have known you, you have been nothing but kind, compassionate, and just all-around wonderful with people in general. That is why, in my opinion, you will make a great father, no matter how old or young you are. You are a natural with Sarah; and I know this for a fact. Alex is very lucky to have you as a friend, and for that matter, I am very glad that you spilled your drink all over me when I first met you."

Zack looked sheepish, but he said, "I'm still sorry about that. But, you are correct. I don't think we would've met if I hadn't." And then the young couple burst out laughing as they remembered how silly she had looked covered in a bunch of wet napkins. And Sarah laughed along with them; not fully understanding the topic or the situation, but she was having fun all the same. When Zack stood up from the ground and picked her up, he had snapped back to reality; realizing that he was actually holding the nine-year-old, who, unfortunately, had messed himself without even realizing it. So, after another quick diaper change, the young college student put his son to bed before going their himself. It had been a very long day, and he was grateful that it was over.

Please be kind and review.


	5. Secrets and Pain

Authors note: most of this chapter will be a flashback. Also, it will contain mention of mpreg. I know this is not what I normally write, but I have been reading a lot of it lately and I wanted to see what it was like. If anyone has any tips for me on how to do it properly, I would be more than grateful. Anyway, on with the story. Disclaimer: as always, I do not own any of the characters you recognize.

Chapter 5:

It was very late in New York City, and nearly everyone was asleep. Well, everyone that is except for one Robert Foster. He had been tossing and turning all night long because he kept having dreams about his past. He had no idea what was going on and it was starting to scare him. Everyone, including his two best friends, thought he was extremely irresponsible and childish, but what they didn't know was that he felt that way because he was lost and alone inside. Robert may have been irresponsible, but the truth was that he had a very heavy heart and a lot of regrets. He supposed that that was the reason why he was drinking so much, but in reality, Robert was barely hanging on to reality. Both Alex and Zack knew that their friend had a lot of problems, but they had no idea what was really bothering him. Or, at least, they didn't know until they were awakened in the middle of the night by an unearthly sobbing, and it was coming from his room.

Alex thought he was just dreaming at first when he heard the crying. He had been working with kids so much that he was indeed starting to dream about them, which wasn't unusual, considering the kinds of kids he worked with on a daily basis. So, at first, Alex dismissed the crying as someone in a neighboring apartment. But as he had become more aware of his surroundings, Alex slowly began to realize that the crying was coming from Robert's bedroom, and judging by the sound of it, he was in a lot of emotional pain. The guy may be 23 years old, but his heartbroken sobs reminded Alex of those of a very small child. Alex had no idea what was wrong, but he thought he had better check on his friend, just in case he was having nightmares again. And as he had gotten up to do just that, Zack had been startled awake for the same reason Alex had. But, since he was a little quicker to understand what was going on, Zack got to Roberts room first.

He knocked on the door softly, and when he didn't receive an answer, Zack opened the door gently and walked in silently. He was soon joined by Alex, and the two of them silently knelt down next to their friend's bedside. They knew he was still asleep, but those heartbreaking sobs were terrible to listen to. Alex and Zack wanted desperately to wake their friend up, but they hesitated in doing so because they were afraid that he would accidentally bite them, which he had in the past. So, instead, they opted to stay with him until he woke up on his own. They both agreed though that if he didn't after 10 minutes, they would wake him.

In Robert's mind, he was a teenager again. Although he was male, he had been told a long time ago that he was born with both a male and female reproductive system, so, naturally, he had the ability to become pregnant, which he obviously was. However, that wasn't the terrifying thing.

The terrifying thing was that one of the high school bullies found out about it. Not only did he find out about it, he was now in the process of forcing Robert into the worst position he could ever be in. The bully's foot was against Robert's lower belly, and he was pushing down extremely hard. Robert didn't know what he was saying, but he knew that the bully was really frightening him, not to mention, endangering him. Shortly afterward, Robert had been rushed to the hospital because he had started to bleed; badly! He hadn't realized it at the time, but when a doctor and a nurse told him as gently as they could that he had been pregnant and that he had been forced to miscarry, the teenager collapsed in tears and remained that way for the rest of the day. Ever since then, Robert was never the same. He started getting drunk at parties and he became more and more irresponsible. He thought, at that time, that it was his only way to deal with the pain, but somewhere, in the back of his mind, Robert knew that it wasn't worth throwing his life away over. Things got better after meeting his two best friends in college, but no matter what he did, or how he tried to hide it, his past would always catch up with him; giving him nightmares, and driving him crazy.

Zack POV:

I suddenly jolted awake when I heard my roommate's heart wrenching sobs coming from across the hallway. I knew immediately that it was Robert because, although Alex had strange dreams occasionally, he never ever cries about them. Robert on the other hand, well, he's been a mess for a very long time, and I am very worried about him. So, without further hesitation, I knocked on his door gently, and when I didn't receive an answer, I opened the door to see Robert looking terrible! Although his eyes were closed, I could see the thick pool of tears forming on his pillow as he cried and thrashed around. I wanted to wake him, but I knew he would bite me if I did. Trust me; he has done it before, and let me tell you, it hurt! So, I did the only thing I could at the moment. I knelt next to him; hoping he would wake up soon.

Later on, Alex joined me and we both stayed there; hoping that our friend would snap out of it soon. He must've been having a terrible dream, because his face was blank, and he didn't seem to know that we were with him at all. Robert was completely out of it; he didn't even know that he was extremely close to the edge of his bed, and was about to fall out of it. I didn't want that to happen to him, so I very carefully moved him over so that he wouldn't fall. And surprisingly, Robert didn't even know because he was still in his own world. After about 10 minutes of this, I whispered to Alex, "I think we need to wake him now. He's not coming out of it on his own."

So without further hesitation, Alex stood up from the floor and began to gently shake Robert awake. It took a long time, but his face finally came out of its blank state, and Robert looked at us tearfully. But for once in his life, he did not have the energy to lash out, which was a good thing. Maybe he would be willing to talk to us about what has been bothering him. Because, as much as Robert is irresponsible at times, I had this sudden feeling that he never used to be that way. Cracking one eye open, Robert asked hoarsely, "Alex, Zack, what are you doing in here?"

I gave my friend a compassionate stare and answered as gently as I could, "we came in here because we wanted to make sure that you were all right. We heard you crying in your sleep again. If you think that's normal, it's not. You've been doing this every night for the past two months, and we are really worried about you. You need help, but we can't give it to you unless you tell us what's bothering you."

Robert's face hardened for a moment as he asked me, "if I tell you, you won't judge me, will you?"

Robert's question surprised me. What kind of question was that? Of course I wouldn't judge him! We all make mistakes; right? But I managed to hide my shock as I answered softly, "of course we wouldn't! Why do you ask that?" And then I saw the tears pricking at the back of his eyes again and I said gently, "Robert, you can tell us; I promise that we won't judge you."

Robert looked scared, and I could tell just by the look on his face. Whatever he had to tell us was extremely difficult for him, and it was maybe one of the main reasons why he struggled so much to stay sober. And then without warning, Robert threw himself into my arms like a little kid and he was crying harder than ever. Alex and I were at a loss for words. Robert's action was much unexpected, but not unwelcome. Robert was like a little brother to us and whatever he had to say, we would listen no matter what. When he was calm enough, Robert eventually told us everything. He told us about how he was as a teenager and how he had gotten bullied a lot in high school. But that wasn't the most unexpected thing he told us. He admitted to us that because he had been born with both a male and female reproductive system, he was somehow able to become pregnant, which he had been when the bullying started.

Alex and I were too numb to speak, so we just let Robert continue with his story as I hugged him. He began to cry again as he told us about the forced miscarriage and how that was the main reason for his becoming irresponsible. "Zack," he cried, "I am 23 years old, and I still feel horrible about losing my child. Even though I was only 16, I didn't want to give it up. I started drinking and going to parties because I thought that was the only way for me to deal with the pain, but I know it isn't. I just don't know how to get back on my feet, and I need help."

As I looked at my friend, I realized, not for the first time, that there was a deep pain in his eyes; a pain that had always been there, but I never noticed for very long. After a while, I sat next to him with Alex on his other side and I said softly, "Robert, I am going to tell you something about myself that you probably don't know. First of all, I completely understand where you're coming from. Although I did not have a baby at 16, I found out later in my teenage years that I had been born the same way. I was always warned by doctors to be careful because of this reason, so I tried my very best to be straight, but it didn't always work that way. Although Lily was my girlfriend before she died, she had always known that I was differently orientated. She didn't care though because she was the sweetest, kindest, most loving person ever. But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to be worried about being judged, because I would never do that to you, and neither will Alex. If you still need help, we can make sure that you see a therapist. Now, it's late, and you need to get some sleep." I told him. And without thinking about it, I covered him up and Alex and I left the room. But as we couldn't sleep anymore to begin with, we just decided to talk about what I had revealed.

I know, I know, it's another cliffhanger. However, there is something that I want to do with it, and I would appreciate some help if you can. I have been reading a lot of male pregnancy stories, and I wanted to try it for myself. I promise that I will not be explicit about it or anything, I just want to have some fun with it. So, if anyone has any ideas for me on how to develop this idea or story line, please send it to me as a private message or in a review. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.


	6. Unconditional Love

I was hit with sudden inspiration, and I have nothing better to do, so here I am again. This next chapter will contain a time skip, but don't worry. It's only a timeframe of about three months or so. Warning: this chapter will contain mpreg. Also, be prepared. Because Harry will be a little jealous. Disclaimer: once again, I do not own anything recognizable.

Chapter 6:

The nine-year-old was now feeling much better, and was starting to attend school at Hogwarts a little more frequently. Although his speech was still not up to snuff yet, that was to be expected. Also, it had been a few months since Robert had talked about what had been really bothering him all these years.

As it turned out, Robert had had a forced miscarriage when he was 16; making him a miserable wreck for the rest of his life. Both Alex and Zack knew and understood this, especially after he had woken them up plenty of times with his terrible nightmares. They knew it was difficult for him, and they also knew that that was the main reason for his irresponsible behavior at times. Although this didn't excuse him from being irresponsible, Alex and Zack tried their hardest to help Robert rather than get angry with him. And although things weren't always easy for him, Robert was now getting some professional counseling, which helped a great deal. He seemed happier, but at the same time he seemed lonely.

Anyway, that was three months ago, and not only that, but Harry was spending more and more time with the college students as Mrs. Dursley and the others were very busy with work and school. He had seen Hermione a lot more than he used to, and it wasn't only in the library that he saw her either. Nobody knew what it was, but Hermione was starting to come out of her shell a little bit more. Both Alex and Zack knew this for a fact, because she hardly ever leaves the library; not even to eat. But after the Christmas holidays, things had changed, especially with her. She actually came down to the cafeteria and ate lunch with everyone; much to the surprise of all the staff. They had always known that Hermione would come out of her shell someday, but they never knew that it was because of the two young men working with her friend. In a way, Alex and Zack had helped her just as much as they were helping Harry. No one, not even Dr. Lupin, understood why these two young men were having such an effect on one child, but one thing was for sure. The two youngest members of staff showed nothing but love and kindness to not only students, but to each other as well. Whether it was that or something else, the love and kindness that they showed to the students was contagious, and everyone was happier because of it. Even the newest student, Ronald Weasley, didn't seem so frightened and scared anymore.

Shortly after the holidays, Ronald Weasley had been enrolled at Hogwarts because of what it happened to him earlier that school year when Mr. Dursley was alive. He had been really shaken up for a long time, and refused to leave the house without an adult. But now that he was at Hogwarts, Ron felt much safer and calmer, especially when he was around the youngest members of staff. He didn't know what it was about them, but he felt safe with them, and he knew that nothing would happen to him as long as he was around them.

Anyway, it was now the weekend, and Alex and Zack were just relaxing and talking about nonsense. Well, it wasn't all nonsense. After Robert's revelation, and I guess, Zack's as well, the two of them had gotten much closer than they ever were before. Although the two of them had been best friends for a long time, Alex and Zack never actually thought about being more than that, especially since Zack had been dating Lily at the time. But now, they both realized that they hadn't been best friends for a long time for nothing. They each realized, deep down, that they each loved the other, and they wanted to do something about it. The only problem was that the nine-year-old was still a little too ill to be left alone for very long, so they didn't really know what to do. And although the little boy was not at their house this weekend, Zack constantly worried about him, which was natural because he was his father. But since Harry was at the Jacksons this weekend and Robert had an evening class, Alex and Zack had the whole evening to themselves to do whatever they wanted. Little did they know however that consequences and responsibilities would follow?

It was a few weeks later, and Zack had awakened confused and disoriented until he finally realized that he was once again in Alex's bed; somewhere he went whenever the nine-year-old was not staying with them. But this time, he was awake for a very different reason. Yes, he was confused and disoriented, but he also didn't feel good at all. He didn't know what it was, but it seemed as though last night's dinner wasn't agreeing with him. His stomach was actually turning and he looked green. After a while, Alex woke up, and when he saw the look on Zack's face, he asked gently, "Babe, are you okay?"

For an answer, Zack immediately rushed to the bathroom where he started puking up last night's dinner. Alex came in behind him and held Zack's hair back as he continued to vomit into the toilet. "I don't think you should go to work today," Alex said softly. "If it's a stomach bug, I don't want any of the kids to catch it."

Zack looked up at his best friend with wide eyes, but he nodded in understanding. But then he said, "I don't think I should either. I'm tired as hell, and I have been feeling this way for at least a week now."

Alex seemed to understand as he asked, "has it always been in the morning?"

Zack looked surprised, but answered, "yeah, why?"

Alex did not answer his boyfriend's question. Instead, he said, "I'm making you a doctor's appointment; I think I know what's wrong with you."

It wasn't even a week later when it was confirmed. Zack, because of his unique ability, was most definitely pregnant. And although he wasn't showing just yet, he was definitely having weird cravings and extremely moody, but that was to be expected. Even Robert was laughing at him occasionally because he was usually the moody one out of all of them. But the biggest problem right now was how to tell Harry that he was going to be a big brother in a nonconventional way. It was already hard enough for the nine-year-old to express how he felt, but there was no getting around it this time. Someone had to tell him, even though it was going to be hard to do.

Since it was Wednesday night anyway, Harry was over at the college student's apartment. He had been watching some cartoons, but he was getting lonely, so he went to find Alex and Zack. He was starting to become frightened as he didn't know where they were, but he immediately calmed down when he saw them in one of the bedrooms. When Zack saw his son hesitating in the open doorway, he came out and crouched in front of him. "What's wrong buddy?" He asked gently. "You can come in." And with that, Zack lifted up the nine-year-old and carried him into the bedroom in which he and Alex were in.

The nine-year-old gently tugged on his father's hair and asked, "Dada?"

"Yes?" Zack looked down at his son; waiting for him to finish his question.

"Ice cweam?"

Zack sighed heavily, but he smiled faintly. "Sure kiddo; come on."Over his shoulder, Zack asked, "Alex, do you want some ice cream as well? I promise I won't eat it all."

Alex laughed and answered, "yeah right; just like you said last time, but you ended up doing so anyway." But then he laughed again and said, "I'm just kidding; of course I will! I take it the little guy wanted some?"

"You got it," Zack answered with a smirk. And then getting closer to Alex's ear, he whispered, "so, how are we going to tell him? I have a feeling it's not going to be easy."

Alex frowned and answered, "I know what you mean. Harry is still so much like a baby himself, so I don't know if he'll even understand what we're trying to tell him. But it's not just his emotions; it's his actions as well. You know as well as I do that he has a permanent disability now thanks to his uncle. This is going to be harder than I thought, but we have to tell him. Not only that, but this apartment will not be big enough for all of us once the baby is born, and I'm not even out of college yet."

Zack sighed heavily and answered, "neither am I, but I'm not giving it up. I'm not going to make that same mistake again."

With those words, Alex's face softened as he said gently, "nobody said you had to. I know how difficult it was for you when you gave Harry up for adoption all those years ago, but I'm just saying. We need to really think about this, especially now that this is a reality."

"Yeah, you're right," Zack said softly. "But how will he take it? I'm more worried about my son's reaction rather than what others will say. I'm worried that he will hate me forever."

Alex smiled gently and said, "Harry may be mad at you at first, but I don't think he will hate you. He's not that kind of person. If anything, Harry may revert back to some of his old ways for a while until he gets used to the idea." After a while, Alex gently shoved his friend toward the kitchen and said, "you had better get your son some ice cream, and you need to tell him. He may not understand, but you need to try." And with that, Alex quickly finished his homework before joining his best friend in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Zack was in the process of helping Harry to eat his ice cream as he was making a huge mess. The little boy kept glancing at his father with a look of confusion on his face. Although he was young, Harry was very perceptive, and he noticed that his father seemed distracted. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but the little boy didn't really understand why his father was so distant and distracted. So, the little boy settled on asking, "Daddy? You sad?"

Zack fed his son another spoonful of ice cream before answering, "no kiddo, I'm not sad." Sighing, Zack said gently, "do you remember when I told you about your mama and how she met me?" The little boy nodded his head, so Zack continued. "Well, oh boy, how am I supposed to say this? Well, do you remember how I told you that a stork brought you to me in your mama when you were just a baby? Well, that stork is bringing someone very special to all of us."

Harry looked confused as he asked, "but Mama... mama not here?"

The young man smiled gently as he scraped the last of the ice cream from the little boy's chin. "No, no she's not," he answered. "But, this time, this time it's different. This time, I'm the mama."

"Don't understand," the nine-year-old said softly. But then to his surprise, Zack gently laid the little boy's hand against his lower belly much the way he had done for Sarah all those years ago. Harry jumped a little as he felt a slight fluttering against his fingertips, and he suddenly began to cry. "What's wrong baby?" Zack asked gently.

The little boy buried his face in his father's shirt as he cried, "don't love me? Kicked out? Cupboard under the stairs?"

And then Zack understood instantly what his son was talking about. "Oh Baby, no! You aren't going anywhere. I would never kick you out! I love you too much for that! Oh, come here..." and then he held his son in his arms as he wiped off his face. And true to what Alex had said, the little boy reverted back to his old way of playing with his father's hair as he held him. And the next few months weren't exactly pleasant, especially because there were certain days when Zack was extremely moody and took it out on almost everyone without meaning to.


	7. Tantrums?

Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognizable. All main characters belong to their rightful authors. Warning: Slight mention of nudity and bodily fluids.

Chapter 7:

The days were getting longer, and the weather was getting warmer. Summer was definitely coming and with it, a new addition. Although the baby wasn't due until sometime in mid August, Zack could feel it moving around constantly. He knew that his son was still somewhat angry, but there was virtually nothing he could do to change the little boy's mind. The young man understood how he felt though; one minute the nine-year-old felt like he had been accepted, and the next, he felt threatened; maybe even a little jealous. But, that didn't necessarily excuse him from being a little bratty. Even when Harry was back home with the Jackson family, the whole family noticed a change in his behavior. Harry was usually calm and docile, but lately he had been moody, throwing things around, and screaming a lot. Nobody knew what to do; not even Alex and Zack. Not even Percy was able to calm him down whenever he got like this, and it was starting to worry him. In fact, it even angered him a couple of times because he just didn't know what to do about it anymore. In fact, the worst thing that had happened actually happened while Percy was trying to get homework done. Tyson was out in the garage as usual, so he was lucky to miss it. Anyway, Percy was in the middle of doing in English essay when he heard the screaming in the bedroom next door.

Harry was very upset, because he still felt that he was being replaced. He somehow understood that his father was having another baby, but because of his traumatizing childhood, he felt threatened; as if he would be thrown out again. And no matter what anyone tried to tell him, Harry had little to no comprehension of what was truly going on. So, because of it, he had taken to throwing tantrums and having complete meltdowns over it. In other words, he was extremely jealous and wanted attention. Anyway, the nine-year-old's behavior was absolutely horrendous that day. When he thought no one was looking, the little boy went into his bedroom, took off all of his clothes, and as if he was an angry dog, Harry had purposely urinated and defecated on the carpet. And boy was Mrs. Dursley angry! She understood that it was hard for him to express how he was feeling sometimes, but being an absolute brat about it was an entirely different thing. In fact, Percy actually jumped out of his skin when he heard his aunt's angry voice.

"Harry James Callahan!" She exclaimed angrily. "You do not, under any circumstances, act like that! Do you understand me? That was a very naughty thing for you to do and you will have to be punished for it. So, for 15 minutes, I want you to sit in the corner. When you are done, I will be keeping an eye on you for the rest of the day." And without another word, Mrs. Dursley turned on an egg timer and set her nephew in the corner.

Meanwhile, Tyson was in the garage working on his final project for school when his phone rang. Since no one hardly ever called him, Tyson was a little confused as to who it could be. But for some reason, he recognized the number, so he answered it. "Hello?"

"Tyson, it's Zack," the young college student answered. "I'm sorry to be calling your phone, but your house phone is busy, and I couldn't reach your older brother. Are either of them home?"

Tyson sighed heavily and answered, "my aunt is home, but my parents aren't; and least, not yet. Is something wrong?" Tyson was a little worried because the only times that Zack or Alex had called his phone was because it was usually an emergency, especially when Percy and the adults were gone. But since Percy was still doing homework and Mrs. Dursley was making dinner in the kitchen, Tyson had more reason to be worried.

The grad student seemed to sense this because he said gently, "you don't have to be worried. I'm just calling because there is something I need to tell all of you, and I think it's the main reason why your cousin has been acting up lately. Could you please tell your aunt and parents that Alex and I will be over here later this evening to discuss this? Again, I wouldn't have bothered you, except that it didn't seem as though anyone was home."

"No, it's okay," Tyson told Zack. "I will let them know; thanks for calling and letting me know."

"No problem; see you in a little bit," Zack replied.

At the apartment, Zack turned to look at Alex. "Are we doing the right thing?" He asked his boyfriend. "This is going to be hard enough for everyone as it is. I can already see Mrs. Dursley getting worried about how much time it will take away from me spending time with my son. But, like I told you, I am not giving it up; not in a million years!"

Alex shrugged his shoulders and answered, "well, we have to tell them some time. And it may as well be now; there is no other option."

But Zack bit his lip and looked even more worried. "What about Robert?" He asked suddenly.

"What about him?" Alex asked.

"He just recently told us about the forced miscarriage he had," Zack reminded his boyfriend. "Do you really think it will be easy for him to deal with this as well? You know how bad his nightmares get."

Alex reached out and gently cupped Zack's chin in his hands. After a while, he said gently, "Robert will be fine. I actually talked to him shortly after we found out about the pregnancy, and he seems okay with it. Yes, he seemed sad at first, but right now, if anything, I think you have helped him to heal his wounds when you told him."

In order to explain, let me back up a little bit. It was maybe about two weeks ago, after Robert had come home from his therapy session and classes. Alex was not home yet, but he saw that Zack was, and he had a determined look on his face. Robert knew that he needed to tell him something, but he didn't really know how to do so. But, now that Robert was getting counseling, and going regularly, he felt he was stable enough to listen to what his friend had to say. Because, judging by the look on his face, whatever he had to say was very important, and maybe even a little nerve-racking. "Zack?" Robert asked softly, "what's up with you?"

The older man turned around to face the younger one, but he still didn't know how to say what he wanted to say without making his friend upset. After a while, Zack had Robert sit down on the couch next to him. He then asked, "Robert, do you remember when you woke up in the middle of the night and you told me about what had happened to you when you were a teenager?" Robert nodded his head, so Zack continued. "Do you remember what I told you? Do you remember how I told you that I was born with the same ability as you? Well, I just wanted to say... I just wanted to tell you that... well... damn it why is it so hard for me to just spit it out?" Zack thought to himself.

Robert must've been thinking along the same lines, because he said, "just spit it out already!"

"Here goes nothing," Zack thought to himself. Out loud he said, "okay; well, Alex and I are together now, and well, I am... I'm pregnant." Zack waited for his friend to start screaming at him or throwing things around, but to his surprise, he didn't do any of those things. In fact, Robert actually threw his arms around Zack's neck and hugged him. He had tears in his eyes, but he was actually happy. "So, you're okay with this? Are you sure that it won't bring back bad memories for you?"

Robert smiled a somewhat sad smile and answered, "no, I'll be fine. Yes I am still sad sometimes, but you and Alex deserve to be happy, and I'm not going to take that away from you. I'll... I'll even get more counseling so that the memories don't hit me so hard."

Touched by his friend's thoughtfulness, Zack hugged him back. "Robert," he said gently, "it's okay to feel the way you feel. And it's also okay if your memories hit you; it happens to the best of us. However, I am very proud of you for admitting to us that you needed help, and I'm proud of you for trying to get past your pain in a better way. I know this might not be easy for you, but you also know that you can always come to us. You do know that; don't you?"

Robert nodded his head once again and then he asked suddenly, "hey, how did Harry take it when you told him that you were having a baby?"

The 28-year-old frowned slightly and answered, "not very well; I'm afraid. In fact, his aunt and uncle are noticing his behavior as well. It's not like him to be that jealous, but then again, he did have a traumatizing childhood, so I guess I can't really blame him."

Robert laughed a little and answered, "well, I may be a little immature at times, but I do know this for one fact. If you know your son as well as you do, then you also understand that he will come around when he feels ready to do so. Right now, he probably feels like he's being replaced because for a while, you were his world. And he was yours. But now he has to share that world with someone very soon, and he's afraid to; he's afraid of getting hurt again."

Zack was surprised and asked, "you hardly even see the kid; yet you can read him like a book. How on Earth did you know that?"

"Well, I guess as we both had something traumatic happen in our lives, you could say that we are kindred spirits in a way," Robert answered with a smile. "Trust me; he will come around."

Back in the present time, Percy had just finished his homework when Tyson came into the house along with his parents. Tyson had come into the house because he needed a drink of water, so he went to the kitchen sink to fill up a glass for himself. Upon seeing his older brother, Tyson quickly told him about the phone call he got, and Percy agreed that it was something that the adults definitely needed to know as soon as possible. After a while, Tyson asked his brother, "excuse my ignorance, but I thought that if someone had both a male and female reproductive system that they were usually sterile? Or am I wrong about that?"

Percy gave his younger brother a strange look but answered, "well, it kind of depends on the situation. Why do you ask that?"

Tyson looked confused, but he answered, "I don't know, but something tells me that Harry hasn't been acting like a little brat for nothing. He's acting this way because he's extremely jealous; maybe even frightened of what is going to happen."

Percy looked confused but he asked, "what do you mean?"

With a slight roll of his eyes, Tyson answered, "isn't it obvious? Harry and his father are practically inseparable on the weekends that they are together, and now that there may or may not be a new edition to the family, he feels threatened, and he's afraid that he is going to be replaced, so he wants attention. And since it's hard for him to communicate, Harry is expressing those feelings through actions rather than words. Didn't you notice that Aunt Petunia was thoroughly cleaning his room last night because he had totally stripped and made a mess?"

Percy grimaced at the images he was getting in his head, but he nodded. "Yeah, I could see where he would feel that way. But the thing to remember is that he has little to no understanding that no one will kick him out. Because he lives in his memories sometimes, Harry still thinks that he doesn't belong anywhere; even though it isn't true. In the meantime, we will have to find out what Alex and Zack need to say about this." But no one in the household had to wait very long because shortly after dinner was done, the doorbell rang; announcing the young men's arrival.

Authors note: hello, it's me again. I am writing this note to explain a few things. Some of you may have noticed that Harry has been expressing his feelings through actions rather than words. This is because it is hard for him to communicate and sometimes, people who have communication problems often act before they think. Now, the other thing I wanted to explain was the fact that he felt the need to totally make a mess of himself. I used to go to a special school for people with special needs, and believe me; some of them did the same thing, especially when they wanted attention. So, in this case, it was Harry's way of telling people that he wanted attention. Again, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.


	8. Non-conventional Parenthood

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to J.K. Rowling or Rick Riordin.

Chapter 8:

As I said before, the Jackson family did not have to wait very long to find out the reason for their nephew's behavior. Shortly after dinner, the doorbell had rung; announcing the young men's arrival. Harry was very tired and cranky, but Poseidon made sure he wouldn't run off by holding him in his arms so that he could try and calm down a little bit. However, it was a huge shock for the family when they noticed that Zack's appearance was completely different from the last time they had seen him. When Alex noticed that everyone was staring at his boyfriend with strange looks, he explained gently, "Um... well, there is really no easy way for me to say this, but Zack and I are here because we have something we need to tell you. It is nothing bad; however, I am going to warn you right now that it is a bit of a shock to the system, especially if you are not used to it."

As the family looked at the two young men in stunned silence, Zack continued where Alex had left off. "I am sorry to spring this on you, but I didn't feel that it was important until just now. As you know, some people are born with both a male and female reproductive system, which means that they are usually sterile. However, there are some exceptions to that rule. Don't ask me how because I really don't know how that works. Anyway, I am one of the people who not only has both a male and female reproductive system, I also happen to be one of the people that is not sterile. In other words, Alex and I came over here because we felt that you needed to know the truth. Harry has been acting unusually bratty lately because four months ago, I found out that I was pregnant, and because of this, your nephew, who is also my son, feels threatened and is extremely jealous. I have no idea what to do about this, and I am terribly sorry that he had acted this way. Of course, I don't blame him. The poor kid had been through enough already and I didn't know he would react this way. I will do what I can, but it won't be easy."

Then Mrs. Dursley spoke up. She was looking worried as she asked, "what would you like to do? Would you feel better if Harry stayed with us for a while once the baby is born? You need that time to bond with your son or daughter, and I know that Harry has been rather difficult about it."

Zack shook his head in the negative and answered, "no, I think that in order for Harry to come to terms with the fact that he is not going to be kicked out and that he will have to share my attention with someone else is for him to keep our regular agreement. I want him to try and get used to the baby once it's born. He will in time, but I don't think it's going to be any time soon. I know it will be difficult for him, but Harry needs to learn that although he has some special needs, he can't act the way he has been all the time." And then Zack added gently, "Mrs. Dursley, I understand your concern, and I greatly appreciated, but you don't have to worry about anything. I will try my very best to give equal attention and love to both Harry and the baby once it's born. Besides, I have Alex and Robert to help me out. Robert may be a little irresponsible at times, but he is getting help in getting better. So don't worry."

Time skip: several weeks went by after both young men told the Jackson family and Mrs. Dursley about the baby. Zack was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the baby was moving around a lot more than usual and he had to go to the bathroom much more frequently than he used to. This was because the baby's head was resting against his hips; putting a lot of pressure on the young man's bladder. There were also times when the young man just could not sleep because the baby kept kicking him. In fact, he was up until almost 3 in the morning because one, the baby was very active and two, because the nine-year-old was staying over that night and for some reason, he woke up in the middle of the night needing to be changed. However, since Zack was practically ready to pop any minute, he could not physically lift his son. Instead, he just grabbed a changing pad and slipped it underneath the child so that he did not have to carry him to the changing table. "Jeepers it's like having two babies in the house," he muttered to himself. "But I know that it can't be helped for now."

At the same time, Alex had woken up to see his boyfriend practically waddling back to bed and looking extremely tired. "What were you doing up?" He asked sleepily.

"Harry needed to be changed, but I couldn't lift him, so I had to do it on his bed. Man that's hard to do!"

Alex gave his boyfriend an irritated look. "Zack, why didn't you come and get me? I could've done it. Besides, the baby is about to come any day now, and it's not good for you to be on your feet so much right now."

Zack sighed heavily and answered, "I know, but I couldn't sleep. And Harry needed something, so what was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave him like that. I'm not freaking Vernon Dursley! I am not giving up this baby!"

When Alex looked into his boyfriend's eyes, he could see a hint of almost every emotion in them. But most of all, he could see a strong determination, devotion, and love. He even saw tears pricking at the corners of his eyes a few times. Alex reached out and gently cupped his hands around Zack's chin and lifted it up so that his boyfriend was staring straight into his eyes. Now you listen to me, Zack, I never said you had to. I am not asking you to do that. All I was trying to say was that you really need your rest, especially now. I know you want to do everything possible, but you will have that chance. Harry is not going to stay mad at you forever. You do know that, don't you? Just take it easy for now."

And sure enough, a few days later, the 28-year-old college student was in the hospital recovering from his see section. Not only an hour ago, he had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, which he had named Maria Rose Fitzgerald. Although Alex and Zack were not technically married, they both wanted their daughter to take Alex's last name as he was the father. It was kind of weird and strange for Zack to be named as the baby's mother, but in a way, it made sense. Of course it would be incredibly confusing for their daughter when she got older, but right now, it didn't matter one bit. As long as someone was there to love and care for her, it didn't matter who was Mom and who was Dad. Anyway, as I said before, Zack was recovering from his surgery. The baby had to get the heel tests that all newborns had to have as standard protocol. He was exhausted, but he was smiling. From the minute his daughter was born, Zack couldn't stop staring at her face; he loved her so much! He must've been lost in thought because when Alex spoke to him, Zack startled a little. "What did you say?" He asked.

Alex smiled and asked, "I said, how are you feeling; Mommy? Do you feel any different?"

Zack smiled warmly at his boyfriend, even more so when he had been called Mommy. It was one thing to be a father, but an entirely different thing to be known as someone's mother, especially when he was not technically female. But all the same, Zack didn't mind being called Mommy, because well, that's what he was, at least to their daughter. "I'm a little tired, but nothing to sneeze at."

Alex snorted lightly. "A little tired?" He asked incredulously. "Zack, honey, you look exhausted! In fact, you almost look like the living dead, and that's saying something."

Zack laughed quietly. "You know, if I had enough energy to smack you right now, I would. But since I don't, and what you said was kind of true, and funny, I'll let it slide this time."

But before Alex could retort, a nurse came in carrying the newborn baby in a receiving blanket. And on instinct, Zack held out his arms and was immediately greeted with a soft, tiny, warm body against his own. The newborn made some sort of noise as she looked up into the face of her mother. Almost as if he had been afraid to ask, Alex hesitantly gazed at his boyfriend with questioning eyes. "May I hold her?" His eyes seemed to say.

And without hesitation, the 28-year-old carefully and gently placed the newborn into her father's arms where she immediately looked up to investigate the new face. "Be very careful with her though," Zack said quietly; "you might drop her." But Alex just smiled as he continued to hold his daughter and examine her fingers and toes. After a while, the baby began to fuss, which meant only one thing at this point. She was hungry, so Alex handed the newborn back to her mother, who already had a baby bottle in his hand, courtesy of the nurse.

Although Zack was able to produce children, he was still a man, which meant that he was not able to nurse her. So, naturally, that meant that they needed to make formula for her. But that really didn't matter; just as long as she was fed. "I don't know about you, but this was the best day of my life!" Zack said softly. "Well, getting cut open wasn't fun, but you know what I meant."

It was about a week later, and the nine-year-old was over at the apartment because it was Wednesday night. It was still summer vacation for Hogwarts students, so Harry had some time to himself and his family. He was still somewhat angry with his father for having a baby, but he wasn't lashing out the way he used to. Now, he just screams and cries about every single thing. It wasn't from lack of trying on his father's part though. Since it was Wednesday night, and the little boy was staying over anyway, Zack thought it would be a perfect opportunity for his son to meet his half-sister even though she was much too little to do much of anything just yet. He also picked this opportunity for the reason that, even though Robert was not home, Alex was. And if there were any problems, he could intervene when it was necessary. So, anyway, the nine-year-old was just playing with some spare toys in the middle of the living room. His father was in the middle of changing the baby's diaper, and Alex was trying and failing to do his homework. Although it was summer vacation for the kids, both young men were still finishing up their programs in school, so they were basically going to school year-round.

But when Zack came into the living room with the baby and approached the older child, he said gently, "come on, son; please try to get used to your baby sister; for me?" The young man sounded tired and beaten down, which he probably was. Having a baby takes a lot out of you; especially the first part. The 28-year-old had dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in a long time, and he looked rather fragile and stressed out. For some reason, the newborn was colicky, especially at night and it was very difficult for everyone. Even though Alex was helping out, he honestly had no idea what to do when it came to a baby with colic. Sure, he had a lot of experience with his little sister, but that was different. She may have been disabled, but she had never had colic, so he had no idea how it truly affected anyone. Anyway, Zack was still trying to coax the nine-year-old to at least try to get used to his baby sister, but Harry either didn't understand or he was in one of his moods himself, because he suddenly started to scream and cry. "Don't want to," he cried, "don't want to!"

"Oh my God?" Zack thought to himself. "What am I going to do?" He almost put his head in his hands, but then he realized that he was still holding the baby, so he couldn't do that very easily. Instead he asked gently, "Harry, honey, I don't know what you want me to do. What do you want?"

"I want you," he cried tearfully, "I want you!" And then as if he was a much younger child, Harry began to beat his little fists on the carpet as he screamed and cried.

By this time, Zack was beginning to get really stressed out. He had no idea what to do concerning the jealousy issues. He knew that Harry had them, but he didn't expect them to be as strong as they were. The newborn in his arms began to cry as her older brother's screams were frightening her. "Great!" Zack thought to himself, "just great. Now what am I going to do? I can't deal with this all by myself!"

Just then, Alex came out of his room to the midst of all the ruckus and chaos. The baby was crying, Harry for some reason was throwing a tantrum, and his boyfriend looked like he was about ready to cry himself. "What's going on?" Alex asked gently. "Why are Harry and our daughter crying?"

Zack sighed heavily and answered, "Alex, he just won't have anything to do with her right now. Harry absolutely refuses to be near his sister, and I just don't know what to do anymore. Please help me! It is really starting to stress me out."

Alex laid a gentle hand on Zack's shoulder and said gently, "I'll talk to him; okay? It's not going to be easy, but I will do what I can. Just try and calm down." And with that, Alex went over to the nine-year-old and said gently but firmly, "Harry James Callahan, you need to stop this right now. Pounding a hole through the floor is not going to help anything. Do you understand me? I know it's hard for you, but you need to learn to accept that you are not the only child anymore. Okay? Come on buddy, let's go into the other room and talk about this." And without further hesitation, Alex picked up the nine-year-old and carried him into the spare bedroom and sat him on the bed before sitting down beside him. After a while, Alex asked gently, "now, why don't you want to be near your baby sister? Are you afraid?

"Don't know; don't know how..." Harry said quietly. And then he burst into tears and cried, "don't want to hurt her... don't want to hurt her like my uncle hurt me."

Whatever Alex had been expecting to hear; it most definitely wasn't that. His mouth hung open for a few seconds in astonishment. Because the little boy had limited speech, it was often difficult for people, even people in his own family to truly understand how he was truly feeling about a situation. The words were in the little boy's brain, but he often had a difficult time expressing himself because the words didn't always come out when he wanted them to. However, the speech therapist at Hogwarts had noticed significant progress with the young boy's vocabulary, especially when he had the two young men to help him improve. It was for this reason that when he was alone with Alex, Harry was finally able to say what was really on his mind. Throughout Zack's pregnancy, the little boy had been increasingly uneasy for the simple reason that he was afraid that he would turn out like his uncle, so he didn't want to have anything to do with the baby for a while. He didn't want to be near her and accidentally lash out and get her hurt. "Harry," Alex said gently, "it's okay to be afraid. I know that what you're uncle had done to you was wrong and that it scared you. But let me tell you something. If I know you as well as I think I know you, you are nothing like him. You are the sweetest child I had ever seen and known in my life apart from my little sister Sarah. If anything, you are a lot like your father in many ways. But you also have your mother's temper. Trust me kiddo; you have nothing to worry about. Can you explain what you mean by you are afraid that you will hurt her?" The little boy shook his head in the negative and Alex gave him a small hug. "It's okay; you don't have to. Come on; let's go and see your dad."

When Alex and the little boy came back into the living room, the newborn was still fussing a little bit, so Alex took her from his boyfriend's arms and rocked her gently to soothe her. While he was doing this, he explained to Zack what the nine-year-old had recently revealed to him. He explained that the little boy was mostly afraid that he would accidentally lash out and hurt his baby sister; just the way his uncle used to hurt him. "That's why he didn't want to be near her," Alex explained gently. "He was afraid of becoming someone he wasn't due to his abuse and trauma of his former childhood. He wanted her to be safe, so he stayed away from her for that purpose."

Zack had a look of understanding and realization on his face as soon as he heard what Alex was telling him. "I knew that it was something more than jealousy. I just couldn't put my finger on it at first. Is there any way that we can help him through this?"

Alex smiled and answered, "I think, all we can do right now, is to let Harry figure out when he is ready to interact with his baby sister. Now that we know this for sure, we can't force him. He needs to decide this for himself. Forcing him will only make the issue worse, and I don't want that to happen. Also, I think it would be wise to talk to Dr. Lupin about this as well. He may have some tips and tricks that we don't know about just yet. By the way, have you changed the baby lately?"

Zack smiled and answered, "I just did 10 minutes ago. Why?"

Then Alex burst out laughing and answered, "because she is completely soaked!" And then shortly afterwards, the newborn started to cry to let them know that she was uncomfortable. "Well, I guess I can do this one, but it will be your turn to feed her since I did the last time."

So, as Alex was taking care of the baby, Zack crouched down and hugged his little boy close to him. "Oh my little man," he said gently. "I am so sorry. I had no idea that you were so frightened. I won't force you to do anything right now, but if you ever feel that you want to interact with the baby, just know and understand that Alex and I will always be here to make sure that you aren't overwhelmed. You don't ever have to worry about anything. We will help you get through this; don't worry."


	9. A Movie and Disaster

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to Rick Riordan or Joann Katherine Rowling. References to the Lightning Thief movie are only for reference and nothing more.

Chapter 9:

In the meantime, Percy was hanging out with Clarisse; something he rarely had a chance to do since he and his family had been on vacation a lot this summer. And since this was the week before school started, Percy wanted to spend as much time with his friends as he could before he had to start the familiar schedule of going to school and spending some of the days at Hogwarts. Not that Percy minded; it was actually pretty fun over there. But, it was very demanding at times. The main reason was that he had met some of the other children while he was doing homework in the library the previous year, and Percy thought, in his own mind anyway, that some of them were rather unpredictable, especially the new kids.

The new children were usually the children who were more frightened, which meant that they were more likely to lash out at unsuspecting students or staff members without meaning to. It was for this reason that Percy felt somewhat on edge when he was at Hogwarts, but thankfully Dr. Lupin was there to help keep things under control as well as Mr. Snape, Alex, and Zack. Although the two young men weren't working there very long, they quickly figured out the seriousness of most situations and could be trusted along with Dr. Lupin.

Anyway, as I was saying, Percy was hanging out with Clarisse at her house. They were watching movies and just generally messing around. Percy was still amazed that her father allowed him to be in the house with her, but he knew he had nothing to worry about. Although Ares was a little gruff at times, he was actually really nice once people got to know him. In fact, he even asked about Percy's little cousin a few times. Even though he had never met the boy, Ares had been dying to meet him ever since Percy had mentioned him to his daughter. He also wanted to meet him even more as Clarisse kept going on and on about how cute he was. Anyway, the two of them happened to be watching a movie that happened to have a Greek mythology theme. Even in watching movies, the two of them could not get away from the fact that the whole world was practically obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology, but that wasn't the weirdest part.

The weirdest part was that the movie happened to be about a boy who not only had dyslexia and ADHD, but he also happened to be a demigod son of Poseidon. And the weirdest thing? The weirdest thing was that his name also happened to be Percy Jackson. It was for many of these reasons that Percy and Clarisse were rolling on the floor laughing hysterically. "I don't know about you," Clarisse said laughing, "but if I were you, I would run away right now!"

"I know right?" Percy replied. He was laughing so hard that he had tears running down his cheeks, but he ignored them in favor of answering his friend. "I would run away, except that you are sitting right next to my feet and I don't want to step on you." But just as Percy was about to say something else, his cell phone rang; startling him and Clarisse. "Sorry, but I have to take this. It's my brother."

"Go right ahead," Clarisse said as seriously as she could, but she still had a hint of laughter in her eyes. She paused the movie as her friend walked out of the living room and into the hallway. Once he was in the hallway, Percy answered the phone call. "Hello?"

"Percy, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you did tell me to keep you posted if anyone suspicious called the house," Tyson said in a worried voice.

Percy became worried when he heard what his brother had said. "Tyson, calm down. Do you know who has been calling the house? Did you tell Mom and Dad? Did you tell them to screen the phone calls?"

Tyson sighed heavily as he answered, "yes I did, but Annabeth still thinks that you and she are still on speaking terms. She absolutely refuses to quit calling the house, and even Mom and Dad are starting to get annoyed. Percy, I'm sorry, but I don't know what else to do."

Percy's playful demeanor immediately dropped and was replaced by one of anger, hurt, and shame. Although he was angry, Percy did his best to stay calm as he talked to his younger brother. Annabeth was the last person he wanted to talk to, and it was her own fault in the first place. As explained before, Annabeth Chase, went to the same high school as Percy, and they had been friends for as long as they could remember. But because of what happened last summer with his little cousin, the two of them were no longer friends or on speaking terms. She had absolutely refused to believe that anything was wrong with his cousin and that Percy should just let him suffer. And although Annabeth had not set it in those exact words, Percy completely understood the meaning of what Annabeth was getting at, and it was then that he walked out of her life forever. "Thanks for telling me, Tyson; I'll do what I can to keep her from bothering the rest of the family. Did you finish your project that you were working on in the garage yet?"

Over the phone, Tyson laughed. "No, not yet. I'm almost done though, so I will let you see it pretty soon."

After Percy had finished his phone call, tears came suddenly into his eyes and he put his head in his hands to muffle his sobs. It didn't seem to work though because when Clarisse went into the kitchen to get herself a soda, she heard her friend crying his eyes out in the middle of the hallway. Prissy," she thought to herself, "what's wrong with you?" But out loud she said, "what happened?" She didn't even realize that she had walked into the hallway; she was so distracted by her friend's distress. "Percy, what happened?" Clarisse asked as gently as she could. "Something is bothering you, and I don't like it. His Annabeth bothering you again?"

That question seemed to make Percy cry even harder as he managed to say, "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I need to... I need to go over to Alex and Zack's for a little while." And although Clarisse was a little confused, she understood that her friend was really upset and needed someone who was older and could help him a little better. So, she watched him go and made sure that he made it to his car safely before settling down to read a book.

Meanwhile, the two young men in question were very tired, but they were doing their very best to stay awake. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon, and their daughter was thankfully taking a nap in her crib. As she was still only a little over a week old, she wasn't sleeping through the night just yet, so the two parents were extremely exhausted. Zack was pretty much in a stupor, but he was hyper aware of his surroundings, mainly because he knew that the baby could awaken at any moment; needing him. He jumped about a foot in the air when a knock sounded at the front door, but thankfully Alex was already going to answer it. So Zack stayed on the couch and watched through half lidded eyes. He had absolutely no energy to move at this point, so he stayed where he was for a little while longer. But when he saw the miserable look on Percy's face as he walked into the apartment, Zack was wide awake once more. "Oh Percy..." he said quietly."Come here. What happened?" So, without really thinking about it, Percy sort of ran over to the couch and buried his face in the 28-year-old's T-shirt. "Don't cry," Zack said gently, "it's okay; you can talk to us." So, without further hesitation, Percy, through his tears, did his best to tell the college students about how his former friend was bothering his family and that she wouldn't leave them alone. He told them how scared he was for his cousin's safety and that he was afraid that Annabeth would try something even more desperate to get his attention. Percy had cried until he had no tears left, and he didn't even realize that Zack was hugging him and saying gently, "remember what I told you? If people aren't going to understand you or accept you for who you are, they are not your friends. As for the safety of your cousin, I will talk to your parents and ask them to drop your cousin off at our apartment for a little while. But don't worry; if you don't want to talk to her, you have every right not to. Alex and I love you like a little brother, Percy, and I hope that you know that by now."

Percy nodded his head shakily as he asked with a half teasing smile, "so, why the half dead look?"

Zack laughed as he answered, "having a baby will do that to you; I'm sure your parents felt the same way with you when you were a baby."

Percy snorted. "Well, I wouldn't know, since I can't really remember that far back." And it was like that for the next half hour. The three guys constantly teased each other and went back and forth with their friendly banter. As tired as the 28-year-old was, he never abandoned anyone whom he considered friends, and it was the same thing with Alex. He always made sure that everyone was equally respected for who they were.

Since it was the weekend, and it also happened to be a weekend when the little boy was supposed to stay over anyway, there was really no need for Percy or anyone to call the Jackson household because Mrs. Dursley herself came by around 3:30 to drop her nephew off as part of the agreement. She stayed for a little while; asking about how the young men were doing and how the baby was and everything before she left to do some shopping.

Harry ran over to the couch where his father was and immediately began to climb on top of him. However, as the stitches on Zack's stomach were not completely healed yet, the young man winced in pain. "Ouch! Harry, you have to be careful honey. Daddy still has a lot of stitches; okay?"

Just then, Alex came back inside. Apparently there had been new people moving in next door so, naturally, he went over to greet them. When he saw the newly turned 10-year-old climbing all over his father, Alex went over and gently picked him up off of his boyfriend's stomach. "Honey, you can't do that right now," he said gently. "Your dad recently had an operation, and he needs to recover from that. Come on; let's go see if we can make something." And as Alex carried the 10-year-old out of the living room and into the kitchen, Zack shot him a grateful smile. He was just about to try and fall back asleep when the baby began to cry from her nursery. "Zack, do you want me to get her?" Alex asked from the kitchen.

"No, but could you make a bottle for her? I think she's hungry. If not, just make one for later."

In the meantime, Alex and Harry were playing with Plato, and as usual, Harry was making a huge mess. He didn't really mean to; he was just not very coordinated at the moment. After that, Alex remembered that Zack had asked him to make a bottle for their daughter, so he immediately got to work. He still wasn't sure how the 10-year-old would react, so he was surprised when he had asked what Alex was doing. "I'm making a bottle for your sister," Alex told him gently.

"Milk?" The little boy asked curiously. And then he pointed to the can of formula to show Alex what he was asking about.

"No kiddo, it's not milk, but it's similar," he answered. "It's specially made so that the baby can get her strength and energy to grow."

Meanwhile in the Jackson household, Sally was on the phone with Dr. Lupin. She had known for a while that her nephew was having a difficult time with the baby around, so she took it upon herself to give Dr. Lupin a call. What Dr. Lupin had told her was that the 10-year-old was most likely afraid of doing something harmful. "Tell Alex in Zack that they should try to get the older child used to the baby in short spurts rather than making him interact with her all at once. This will hopefully help your nephew to become less afraid and more curious as to what she is like," Dr. Lupin said gently. "I will also talk to them about this and let them know that in Harry's case, he was genuinely not being a brat on purpose. It was just his way of dealing with the fear he was feeling at the time."

"Thank you so much Dr. Lupin; you are a lifesaver!"

Author's note: I completely forgot that Harry's birthday was in July, so hopefully this won't confuse anyone, but he is now 10 years old because it is already August. And Percy is also 17; not 16. Anyway, the next chapter will be when Harry becomes curious about his baby sister, so stay tuned for that.


	10. Practical Jokes

Disclaimer: I do not own either the HP or PJO series.

Chapter 10:

After Alex had finished making the bottle for the baby, he left it on the kitchen counter where he knew that Zack would find it. In the meantime, Alex was in a very mischievous mood, so he went digging and poking around in his bedroom until he found what he was looking for.

What Alex was looking for was actually a video camera. Ever since the baby was born, Alex had been dying to use it, and he thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to do so. However, to avoid suspicion, Alex had taken Harry with him under the pretense that he was going to work with him more on his speech exercises. But in reality, he was being very goofy, and somehow the 10-year-old could sense that about his technical step dad. As I said before, even though Alex and Zack were not married, they both treated the child like family, so therefore, Alex was technically the 10-year-old's step dad. Anyway, the older child could sense the mischievous manner in Alex's body language, and he suddenly started to giggle at the goofy look on his step dad's face.

Alex was smiling, but he gently placed his hand over the little boy's mouth to keep him from laughing too loud as he wanted to keep this particular prank a secret for now. Yes, he knew that his boyfriend may be angry with him for a little while, but Alex just couldn't help it. They both loved playing jokes on each other, especially funny ones like this one. Alex was also sneaking into the nursery to find things that he needed as no one was in there at the moment. Zack was in the kitchen feeding the baby and was completely oblivious to what his boyfriend was doing at the present time. He didn't even look up when Alex walked past him to get what he needed. Anyway, when the 10-year-old began to giggle, Alex hushed him by saying, "I know this is funny, but we can't let your dad know what we're up to right now; okay? Can you keep a secret?"

"A joke?" The little boy asked innocently.

"Yes, but we have to be quiet or your dad will find us," Alex answered as a huge grin spread over his face. But then Alex wrinkled his nose as he suddenly realized that his stepson had messed himself on accident. "On second thought," he said with a slight laugh, "let's change your diaper real quick; you need it!"

In the meantime, Zack was in the middle of feeding the baby. He had to stop every so often to burp her, especially since she was colicky to begin with. This meant that it was sometimes harder for her to keep things down, and it was sometimes hard for her to slow down when she was eating. Maria did not have acid reflux disease or anything like that, but because she was colicky, her stomach bothered her more often than not. This also meant that what she ate went through her much faster than what Alex and Zack expected sometimes; meaning that they sometimes had to change her more often, which was not uncommon, especially since she was not even two weeks old yet.

There must have been something in the atmosphere that day because shortly after the disabled 10-year-old had been cleaned up, Zack was all too aware of the fact that his 10-day-old daughter was about ready to fill her pants. She was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and her slight fusses were nothing that the 28-year-old hadn't heard before. However, since Zack was still healing from his see section; he was unable to lift his daughter on to the actual changing table. So, for right now, he had to use a changing mat and lay her down on the floor. It was a little more difficult to do it this way, but for right now; Zack didn't really have a choice as he was still in some pain from his surgery. So, he very carefully and gently laid his daughter down on the mat; and as he knelt next to her, he didn't even notice that Alex was sneaking in. Also what he didn't notice was the fact that a red light was going somewhere in the corner of the room, which meant that something was being recorded. After that, everything went haywire!

Shortly after the recording device had been turned on, Alex had left the living room to retrieve his stepson. He came back into the living room and was carrying him. He remembered what Dr. Lupin had said. He said that they shouldn't force him to do anything, but they should allow him to see what the parents were doing with the baby at random times in very short spurts. Anyway, Alex came into the living room carrying the older child and he sat down on the floor with him in his lap. He was just near enough to Zack that the little boy could see him, but also, they were just far enough away that he didn't feel too overwhelmed with what was going on. As I said before, everything went haywire shortly afterwards.

As soon as Zack started to change the baby's diaper, he immediately began sneezing and couldn't stop. He didn't know what it was, but something was constantly tickling his nose, especially after he used the cream. What he didn't know however was that Alex had switched the bottles on him, so in reality, he was using a brand that for some reason, always made him sneeze. Alex was laughing so hard that he had tears running down his cheeks. "I told you to use the other brand," he said laughing.

Zack could not answer because he was too busy sneezing. But what he did manage to say was, "I... didn't..." but the rest of what he had been trying to say was masked by more sneezing. And there was also more laughter from Alex.

The older child was looking around curiously to see what his father was doing. He wasn't screaming or crying, so Alex took it as a good sign. In fact, the older child reached out tentatively to try and make contact with the younger child on the floor. Alex was watching him very carefully as he understood that new things overwhelmed him sometimes. And although the 10-year-old did not scream or cry, he was startled when the baby suddenly moved her arms and began to coo. But that's not all he was startled by. At the same time, Zack sneezed again; making the little boy shrink back against Alex's chest. Both of the young men laughed at this, because also, the baby started to cry because it seemed as though it was taking a long time; longer than usual for her mother to change her diaper. "Oh my goodness I think I'm allergic to you, Maria," he teased gently, "yes, I think I am."

Zack sneezed about two or three more times before he finally managed to get the clean diaper on her. The baby finally stopped crying and Alex said teasingly, "well, I think you were just being slightly overdramatic." And then, leaning over the baby to gently tickle her stomach, Alex said in a silly voice, "don't listen to your mother; he was just being silly. He's not allergic to you."

And then Zack replied teasingly, "I think I am... yes... it's true..." and then he leaned over to kiss their daughter's forehead and picked her up."No," he said with a laugh, "I'm just teasing. Come on sweetie; it's almost bedtime." And as if as an afterthought, Zack said teasingly, "by the way, don't you dare put this on YouTube."

Alex laughed even harder as he said, "sorry dude, but it was just too funny not to. So, it's too late. Shall we see what it looks like?" Resigned to the fact that he had no other choice, Zack looked at Alex's iPhone where the YouTube application was displayed. When he saw the video, Zack had to admit that it was pretty funny. The video itself was about 10 minutes long if not longer. He even laughed when he heard himself trying to talk while sneezing, which was not an easy thing to do. The video seemed to go on forever, but both Alex and Zack were laughing hysterically by the end of it. "That diaper change took so long that even our own daughter was getting annoyed," he laughed.

"Yeah," Alex laughed. "It only took you like... let me see... a half hour? And that was before you started to clean her up." Within an hour of the video being posted, both Percy and Tyson had called the college students to tell them how funny the video was and also, Robert just happened to have a break from one of his classes, so he decided to look at it as well. He commented on the video; telling them that they had completely made his day and that he was feeling a lot better than he did earlier. When the 10-year-old started laughing, Zack picked him up and started tickling him as well.

"You little rascal you," he said teasingly. "You let your step dad play a joke on me, and you didn't even tell me? Oh you little goofball." And then Zack placed a kiss on the top of his son's head before setting him back on his feet and giving him a hug. "I love you kiddo; I love you both very much. I hope you know that."


	11. Baby Love Part 1

I thought I would do something a little different with this chapter and give you guys a surprise. You will see once you start to read it, but I don't want to tell you until you start to read it. Anyway, enjoy this next chapter because I guarantee that you will love it! I will be going back a few days in order to explain what is going on. Disclaimer: I do not own HP or PJO.

Chapter 11:

A Few Days Earlier, Maria POV:

I awoke one morning in my crib to extremely bright sunlight, but I didn't care about that. I was too preoccupied with my surroundings and the strange spinning object above my head. Since I couldn't really move very much, I was satisfied with staring up at the object. Its spinning motion fascinated me and I wanted to touch it, but couldn't. "Why does it do that?" I wondered. "Why is it so bright and colorful? Why can't I touch it?" I continue to stare up at the object in question until I see something, or rather someone; a very familiar someone.

I hear his voice and I suddenly become very excited because I recognize it. It's Mommy's voice! "Mommy!" I cry in my head, but all that comes out of my mouth is a string of drool and a bunch of noises that Mommy seems to understand because I can hear him softly talking to me. I can also hear him laughing. The expression on my face must've been a pretty goofy one. I wouldn't know since I was far too young to understand much of anything just yet. But what I finally did realize was the fact that I was slightly uncomfortable and Mommy always knows that.

"Did my little girl make a mess?" He asks me. Yeah, like I could answer that. He holds me for a moment, and I suddenly feel much safer. Mommy makes me feel safe; Mommy makes me feel loved. Daddy does too, but Mommy is different. Mommy is always here with me, but Daddy has to go back to work soon, whatever that is.

But it doesn't matter because I know that he always comes home. Sometimes Uncle Robert is here during the day, but I don't really know him or recognize him. Anyway, I can sense that Mommy is in a lot of pain and that it's hard for him, but he manages the best he can. I may only be a baby, but I feel so connected to him. I feel myself being lowered onto the floor and I see Mommy's dark hair as he leans over me. I still hear him talking to me, but I don't understand half of what he is saying. All that is important right now is that he is taking care of the uncomfortable feeling and I momentarily feel cold as he begins to get me ready for the day. I also feel much better after Mommy changes me, but then I realize how hungry I am. "Mommy, need food!" I cry in my mind, but out loud it comes out as the only thing that Mommy understands.

"Oh my little darling," he says quietly, "I know. Mommy's here... I'll get you some food." And then he carries me into the kitchen, or what I think is the kitchen. I'm not too sure, since everything is so new to me. But I continue to stare up at Mommy's face, because that's the only thing that seems familiar to me in this huge place. I try to touch it, but my fingers are just too small to reach. But I feel Mommy adjusting me in his arms and I see his dark hair again as he leans over to kiss the top of my head. "I love you," he says to me. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," I tell him in my mind, but all he can hear our gurgling sounds. Then I begin to feel full and sleepy as my food is going into my stomach. I begin to feel uncomfortable again, but Mommy thankfully knows this. At least three times, Mommy has had to stop and help me to relieve the pressure building in my stomach. I really hate that feeling as it's very painful and I can do nothing about it. Mommy and Daddy call it colic, but I don't understand what that means. All I know is that whatever it is, it's very uncomfortable, and it keeps me from sleeping through the night. I also know how tired Mommy and Daddy are when this happens, but there is nothing I can do about it and they know that.

Anyway, I here Daddy's voice as he comes through the front door. Mommy and he come extremely close together and I squeal in delight as Daddy takes me from Mommy and covers my head with kisses. He is acting very silly and I don't understand any of it, but what I do understand is that there is a lot of love, and it makes me happy and it makes me feel safe. Apparently, I must've done something shortly after Mommy had fed me because I could hear Daddy telling Mommy that he would do whatever he was going to do with me and Mommy just laughed. I looked up at Daddy to see his soft brown hair; a shade much lighter than Mommy's. He was bouncing me up and down and laughing a little bit; trying to get me to squeal again. Daddy is so silly sometimes, but I love him anyway.

Before long, I saw that everything had become temporarily smaller as I was up on something that felt and looked like a soft and squishy mat. I saw Daddy's large and soft hands and his light brown hair as he leaned over me. I must've been getting changed again because I felt the temporary cold of some smooth substance before Daddy covered me up again. "There you go, little girl," he said in that ridiculously high voice. "All cleaned up." And it wasn't long before I was falling asleep for my afternoon nap. I heard Mommy and Daddy talking to an unfamiliar person and the door opening and shutting as the unfamiliar person left. Although I was asleep, I could still hear everything, and the young boy's voice was one that I had recognized, but it was still unfamiliar to me. "Yay!" I thought. "I get to stare at the Mobile again!" But the spinning motion of the Mobile soon made me drowsy, and I fell asleep instantly.


	12. Baby Love Part 2

Sorry this took so long! I had a friend helping me with the second part of the chapter. Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HP.

Chapter 12:

Still Maria's POV:

I wake up suddenly upon hearing this strange voice. Startled, I scream in my head, "Mommy, I'm scared!"

There's Mommy's voice, but it's far away and he's telling Daddy to get me. Within minutes, Daddy's light brown hair is over me again as I feel him pick me up and bounce me slightly, all to no avail.

"Shh, Pumpkin, Daddy's here. What do you need, huh? You're dry and Mommy fed you just a bit ago. Shh..."

That's the difference between Mommy and Daddy. While I love them both, Mommy always knows what I need. Daddy simply guesses until he gets it right.

"Mommy!" I try my best to answer him, but it comes out as a sound that just hurts my ears.

"Shh, shh..." he bounced me in place a few times, but with my "colic" as Mommy called it, this did not calm me at all, but made it worse instead. Daddy, frantic now that he couldn't calm me, called for Mommy through the open door.

Within moments, I heard Mommy's footsteps on the hallway floor, until suddenly he was in the doorway. The hurried movements of "coming to the rescue," as I heard Mommy call it later while he was teasing Daddy, had made his tummy hurt, as I saw his hand go to that place low on his stomach.

"She won't stop cryin', Zacky..." it was then that I became aware of just how tired Daddy sounded.

"Just wait a minute..." Mommy held up a finger at Daddy, leaning heavily on the doorframe.

I felt Daddy become more alert, his body stiffening just the tiniest bit as he continued to hold me. "Are you all right?" Daddy quickly put me down in my crib, which only made me cry louder, before he went to Mommy.

"I-I'm fine... Just moved too fast and had a contraction because of it-"

"A contraction?" Daddy's voice was panicked, "But-"

"I'm fine, Alex. They're called afterpains. Part of my healing. Really, I'm fine. Oww..." he cradled his scar as his expression became one of pain.

"O-okay. Maybe we need to sit for awhile- Umm..." Daddy guided Mommy to the chair that he would hold me in to put me to sleep.

"Harry..." as the loud banging of a spoon on the kitchen table erupted from down the hall. Whoever this Harry was sounded upset about something.

Daddy's face grew serious as he answered Mommy. "I'll deal with Harry. You just relax. Here's Maria," Daddy picked me up from my crib and gently placed me in Mommy's arms. I snuggled close to Mommy; knowing I was safe. I was no longer frightened of the unfamiliar voice, but I could tell that Mommy was in a lot of pain and I could do nothing about it.

I quieted down slowly after being put into Mommy's arms. Mommy cooed and talked softly to me as his body rocked the chair back and forth. As my tears stopped, I stared at Mommy, studying him. His face was drawn, and he had dark circles under his eyes. I didn't understand why he looked this way, but it frightened me. Mommy was usually not like this; he was almost always laughing and teasing Daddy. Our quiet and gentle rocking wasn't so gentle anymore. Mommy must've been startled because he and I felt ourselves going backwards. Suddenly, he brought me close to him, a hand protecting both my head and my legs as we fell. He tried to turn toward the door, and call for Daddy, but the next thing I knew we were on the carpet, and the rocking chair had flipped to cage us beneath it.

I screamed as loud as I could, because I knew something was wrong and knew Daddy had to know. Mommy had protected me when we fell, so I wasn't hurt, but I was terrified, because Mommy didn't move at the sound of my cries. "Mommy don't leave me!" I screamed in my head. "Don't leave me; I need you!" I may have only been a baby, but I understood fear, and I was feeling a lot of it at the moment. If it hadn't been for Mommy's steady heart beat, I wouldn't have known that he was alive.

From far away, I heard Daddy's voice and he was talking to the stranger I heard earlier. "Stay here, Buddy, I think I heard something fall. I need to check on Daddy and Maria."

"Baby?" I heard the strange voice say over my own crying.

"Yes, Baby. Good job. Eat your Cheerios." Daddy's voice sounded firm, but not harsh as he said that. And then I heard Daddy's footsteps in the hall, and hiccupped out of relief. I was scared for Mommy, but I knew that Daddy would help. "Zack, I heard something fall- Zack! Zack, talk to me!" Daddy sounded frantic as he called for Mommy over and over. Feeling Daddy's fear, I cry louder than ever. "I'm scared!" I scream in my head. "I'm scared! Make it stop!"

Suddenly mommy stirs and whispers Daddy's name. Daddy rushes over to lift the rocking chair off of Mommy and me. Mommy suddenly covers my ears and I don't hear what he says, but whatever he says is probably something he doesn't want me to hear. Both Mommy and Daddy called these words curse words whatever they were, and I had a strong sense that Mommy was using one of them. After a little while, Mommy uncovers my ears and I hear him say, "I have no idea how that rocking chair fell over because it's never happened before."

I feel Mommy standing up with Daddy's help and thankfully he remains upright. I immediately calm down when I realize that Mommy is not going anywhere anytime soon. "Oh, were you scared my little one?" He asks me in a high voice. "It's okay; don't cry... don't cry." Mommy gently rocks me back and forth, which is a much safer method for someone who is colicky like me. As he is rocking me, I hear him ask Daddy if Harry has eaten his snack yet. I hear Daddy's voice as he answers, but then nothing else for a while.

It is a little later when Mommy carries me into the living room after feeding and changing me once again. I feel full and sleepy and I barely notice when Mommy sits down on the couch close to the strange older boy who apparently was drawing. I hear Mommy ask him to spend a little time with me. Although his exact words were that I was his half-sister whatever that meant. "I have a brother?" I asked in my head. "But it just came out as goofy gurgling sounds. But I immediately feel Mommy tensing up; showing that he is extremely stressed. I hear the older boy screaming and crying about something, which only hurts my ears more. I hear him beating his fists on the carpet and Mommy is doing everything he can to hold it together.

I suddenly hear Daddy's voice as he talks sternly to the older boy. I feel Mommy place me in Daddy's arms for a moment as he tries and fails to comfort the older boy. I don't know what he is upset about, but I know he is upset about something. He sounds angry, but at the same time he sounds scared, like he's afraid of doing something wrong. After a while, Daddy places me back in Mommy's arms as he picks up the older boy and carries him to another part of the house. I don't hear their voices as clearly, but somehow, I know that Daddy sounds concerned. I hear the older boy talking to Daddy, or trying to at least. He is very difficult to understand and I don't know why that is. All I know is that he is afraid and that he doesn't know how to do something. "Who is he, Mommy?" I ask in my head. "Why can't I understand him? Why is he scared?" But all that comes out of my mouth are my baby sounds, and Mommy holds me closer.

After a while, Mommy lays me down again on a mat on the floor. I must be only wet, because it doesn't take Mommy as long to get me cleaned up as it does when I am messy. I still feel his tenseness, but it's not as bad as it was when the older boy was in here before. Mommy kisses my forehead and tells me he loves me. After a while, Daddy and the older boy come back. Daddy takes me from Mommy, and I snuggle against him as I hear him talking to Mommy. It's apparently about something very serious, which I don't understand, because both Mommy and Daddy had frowns on their faces. Apparently, my half brother, or whoever he was, was afraid he would hurt me. I didn't understand any of this, but it seemed as though Mommy did, because he visibly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. I heard Mommy talking to the older boy as Daddy took me to feed me. Again Daddy was acting silly, but I didn't care. That's just how he was.


	13. Epologue

I apologize that it has taken so long. I am afraid that this will be the last chapter, because I honestly have nothing else to add for this story. So, this chapter will serve as an epilogue of sorts. For those of you who like the story, thank you. Now, disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Harry Potter.

Chapter 13:

Several weeks had passed since Alex and Zack's daughter, Maria had been born. She was growing bigger every day and the young men were surprised at how big she had gotten over the past two months. Harry, who was her half brother, no longer felt afraid to be around her. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Whenever he was over at Alex and Zack's, the two young men often saw him coming out of his shell a lot more and actually playing with her. Yes, Harry was still a little bit afraid that he would hurt her, but he remembered that his father told him that either he or Alex would be in the house with him, so he didn't have to worry.

Harry still saw Dr. Lupin on a regular basis and went to school at Hogwarts, but somehow he had managed to come out of his shell so much that he was friends with not only Hermione; he was also friends with Ronald Weasley and a couple others. And strange as it was, the person who had helped the boy the most was actually the baby. She was so young and innocent that for some odd reason, the incontinent almost preteen couldn't help but to feel better in spite of himself. His speech had improved quite a bit; but whether or not it was because he had a younger half sibling who loved him without question and unconditionally, no one could say. However, as the two of them grew older, the bond between them grew stronger.

In fact, time had passed so fast that it was already four years later. While Harry remained in continent due to his traumatic past, he found that with the help of everyone in his family, including his little sister, he was finally able to move past it and he became a very mature young man. Since he was older, Harry had chosen to spend most of his time with his father, stepfather, and his little sister. This did not mean however that he stopped caring about the rest of his family. No; if anything, he enjoyed hanging out with his older cousins and their friends as well as spending time with Nico and Bianca. Now that he was actually able to have a proper conversation and do the things that normal preteens and teenagers did, Harry cherished every moment he had with everyone he met.

Right now though, he was sitting in the back of his father's car along with four-year-old Maria and his stepfather, Alex was in the front passenger seat next to Zack, who was driving. It was winter break for the teenager, and since Harry was spending most of his vacation time with his father, they all decided to take a trip to Wisconsin. Both Alex and Zack missed it terribly, and that was also where Lily was buried along with Alex's younger sister Sarah. Although the two of them were not buried in the same plot, they were buried in the same cemetery, which made it easier. Although it was one of the reasons for going, it was not the only one. The two young men realized that once the little boy started to improve cognitively, he also began to ask questions about the rest of his family. Once, he even saw a picture of Sarah as a child, and since he thought he recognized her, he asked about her and who she was. His father and stepfather had very sad looks on their faces, but they did their best to answer his questions. In fact, it was because of that reason that Alex and Zack had decided that once he was old enough to understand and appreciate the trip, they would take him to see the town in which he had been born.

The trip had stuck in the teenager's mind for a very long time. It was a very healing experience for him; both mentally and emotionally. It was there at the cemetery that the teenager was finally able to truly understand that his mother was no longer with them. It was their in that small town in Wisconsin when he finally was able to shake the memories of his uncle Vernon. As soon as he was able to do that, Harry was finally able to understand that family wasn't just about blood ties. Family was much more than that. To the teenager, family was people who loved you and accepted you no matter what. To him, family meant everything. And although Harry was only a teenager, he understood and appreciated what it really was. He was forever grateful to his cousin for saving his life and he was extremely thankful that his real father was able to come back into his life in his time of need.

Authors note: I am truly sorry to be ending this so early, but I had absolutely no inspiration for this story, so I just made a small prologue instead. If anyone would like to continue where I left off, you have my express permission to do so. In saying that, you also have my express permission to use my characters, Alex and Zack. Let me know if you are interested in doing a follow-up of this story.


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